Hursh Comment

Cooler than normal with high humidity and a good chance of showers. That seems to be the forecast over the days ahead. For producers in most areas of the province, it isn’t what they want to hear. Recent warm weather has helped advance crop maturity, but we now seem to be in a cooler, wetter …

 Last week, the price of wheat made national headlines. Drought in the Former Soviet Union has been pushing wheat prices higher. When Russia announced a temporary ban on wheat exports, the market spiked last Thursday and that’s when much of the media attention was generated. Some of the media reports felt it necessary to delve …

Oats is an interesting commodity that has seen a number of market changes in recent years. According to a recent report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada is the world’s third largest oat producer and the world’s number one oat exporter. About 95 per cent of our oat exports are to the U.S. market. Starting …

Wheat futures prices have been soaring higher due to drought in the Former Soviet Union as well as Canada’s excess moisture problems. The rising market gained momentum yesterday with the announcement by Russia that it’s placing a temporary ban on wheat exports. Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade closed yesterday at $8.29 a …

Saskatchewan crops are later than normal and frost remains a huge threat. However, the earliest seeded crops – crops that were in the ground before the end of April – aren’t very far away from harvest. Over the past couple weeks there has been a marked change in their maturity. I haven’t seen any combines …

How many acres of lentils will we harvest in Western Canada this year? What will the total production be? Looking at Canada and the world, what are lentil prices likely to do? The latest Pulse Market Report from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers addresses those questions, but there’s another new report most growers won’t have seen that …

What should happen with cash rents on land that couldn’t be seeded this spring? With millions of acres unseeded, the cash rent situation is a hot topic in some communities. Most cash rental agreements stipulate a payment per cultivated acre without any provision for a year when the land couldn’t be seeded. Legally, under most …

It’s a great year for winter cereals, not such a great year for canola, flax and canaryseed. The crop condition ratings in this week’s crop report from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture show that winter wheat and fall rye and looking great. Winter wheat is rated as 33 per cent excellent and 50 per cent …

Most years, there’s a wide variation in Saskatchewan fields. Seldom is it as extreme as this year. In many cases, the millions of acres of unseeded and flooded land is a mess. It was too wet for good weed control early in the season. It’s common to see waste-high weeds that are drying down from …

A couple weeks ago, there was hope for a quick resolution to Mexican import restrictions on Canadian canaryseed. Unfortunately, there has been limited progress in resolving the problem. Canaryseed exporters in this province say that about half of the canaryseed railcars stopped at the Mexican border have been allowed to enter, but the status of …

It’s been a very different growing season and with that has come a very different in-crop weed profile. Most of my travels are in West Central and Southwest Saskatchewan, and in those regions it’s been a great year for wild mustard. It’s a weed that’s easily controlled in cereal crops and within canola, but it’s …

The state of New York is implementing regulations that could cripple traffic through the St. Lawrence Seaway. The regulations pertain to ballast water used by ships to balance their loads. The discharge of ballast water is blamed for the introduction of many invasive species into the Great Lakes. The New York regulations require ships to …