Hursh Comment

It would be interesting to see a study on this, but I’d bet that farmers in Western Canada have a much bigger investment in grain storage than producers in almost any other country. Despite all the capacity and continued sales of new bins, anytime there’s a decent crop in a region, storage remains a problem …

The potential takeover of Potash Corp is a huge political issue. One aspect of that debate involves Canpotex, the marketing arm for all three of the Saskatchewan potash companies – Potash Corp, Agrium and Mosaic. BHP Billiton has suggested that if it is successful in the takeover of  Potash Corp, it would favour marketing on …

The Canola Council has sent out a Canola Watch report on grading factors. No. 1 canola may contain up to 2 per cent distinctly green seeds and a maximum of 5 per cent damaged seed, including green. The allowable limit for No. 2 is 6 per cent distinctly green and 12 per cent total damage. …

It has been well publicized that Saskatchewan has taken over the administration of the AgriStability program for producers in the province. The AgriStability office is based out of Melville along with the head office for Saskatchewan Crop Insurance. The reports I’ve heard indicate that the staff is far more responsive and knowledgeable than when the …

Canadian beef is subject to country of origin labeling laws in the U.S. However, people who have shopped in American supermarkets often say that they don’t see beef that’s labeled as Canadian. One of the reasons is that much of the Canadian beef goes into the service industry – hotels and restaurants where it doesn’t …

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has just released market outlooks for grains and oilseeds as well as pulse and special crops. A lot of the production and export projections are dramatic departures from the norm. Here’s a sampling. Canadian durum production is estimated to be down 44 per cent from last year, the lowest since the …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is raising to 15 per cent the amount of corn ethanol that can be blended into gasoline. The EPA decision is being criticized for not going far enough and for going too far. The Renewable Fuels Association is upset that that the Ethanol 15 decision is …

It’s a challenging year to be a grain buyer. Quality is all over the map and a wide array of degrading factors are at play. There’s frost damage, bleaching, sprouting and all sorts of disease issues. Producers have sample bags representing each bin of stored grain and they will be shopping them around looking for …

Saskatchewan’s fruit and vegetable sectors are still accessing their losses, but 2010 has been a difficult year. Fruit producers in central and northern regions of the province are reporting very little production this year and many have lost plants due to flooding. Province wide, it’s believed that production may be as little as 10 per …

The Canadian Farm Business Management Council on its website www.farmcentre.com has an interesting story on how the Association of Alberta Co-op Seed Cleaning Plants is adopting colour sorting technology. According to the story by Donna Fleury, five Alberta co-op plants are now running a colour sorter on their cleaning line and another three will soon …

Are the best grain prices over or are they yet to come? Canola futures prices dropped last week and on top of that most grain companies widened their basis levels. A widening basis is a signal that more grain is being pushed into the system than what buyers can handle. Lots of producers want to …

The deadline has passed for putting in an application under the Excess Moisture Program.  As the flood of last minute applications are processed, it should give a picture of exactly how many crop acres were unseeded and how many seeded acres were flooded. This $30 an acre federal / provincial program has been relatively easy …