Hursh Comment

The last few weeks have seen two massive precipitation events. For the time being, drought fears have been largely eliminated on the western Prairies. In some eastern regions of Saskatchewan, excess moisture is now a problem. The prospects for pasture and hay are looking good. In addition to the moisture, there has been a limited …

The Liberal Party is putting some emphasis on policies for rural Canada. Earlier this week, leader Michael Ignatieff made a commitment to what he calls “Canada’s first National Food Policy.” While it’s heartening to see some attention being paid to agriculture, it’s obvious that the Liberals are going after seats in rural Ontario. They have …

Canola seeding recommendations have changed over the years. Conventional wisdom was that you wanted to seed a little later in the spring so that emerging canola would be more likely to escape frost damage. In the 90s, conventional wisdom was challenged. It was found that canola could harden off and withstand a significant frost. In …

There’s more and more market information available to grain, oilseed and specialty crop producers, but more information is not necessarily more knowledge. In the latest Pulse Market Report from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, there’s detailed information on the lentil, pea and chickpea crops in Turkey and Australia. This is great market intelligence, but it’s tough for …

According to the Statistics Canada seeding intentions report released yesterday, there are some dramatically different seeding intentions between the three Prairie Provinces. On lentils, the increase in Saskatchewan is pegged at 16 per cent which would increase lentil acres to 2.7 million. This is far below trade estimates. The increase in Alberta is 200 per …

A couple weeks ago, many areas of the province were anticipating an early start to seeding. In fact, there could have been a lot more seeding done but producers held off because it was so early. Since then, we’ve had a major rainfall event and now we’re into damp, cool weather. There was snow over …

The seeding intentions report from Statistics Canada comes out on Monday and everyone expects durum acreage to drop dramatically. In fact, the Canadian Wheat Board is expecting a drop of close to 25 per cent. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s even greater than that. But don’t expect American farmers to follow suit. The CWB …

Odds are you don’t know much about Ochratoxin A, but this mycotoxin has big implications for Canadian cereal grains. Ochratoxin A, also called OTA, is produced by a fungus during grain storage. It has long affected many commodities, but more countries are now establishing maximum levels for OTA in grains and in food products. Health …

It’s easy to scoff at the import standards of other countries – standards that seem designed to restrict trade. However, as Canadians we need to get our house in order before we criticize too much. On one hand, we’re pushing other countries to develop a Low Level Presence (LLP) policy, but we don’t have one. …

The annual meeting of the Canada Grains Council is underway in Winnipeg and yesterday was devoted to market access issues. Some interesting information came out regarding European market access for Canadian flax. When a German bakery found traces of GM flax in its products last August, this was a lead news story in Europe for …

Which crop will return to $7 a bushel first – durum or peas? A neighboring farmer posed that question as we shot the breeze at the local farm input dealership over the weekend. It’s an interesting way to look at the difficulties facing these two major crops. Both durum and yellow peas have shown they …

The first crop report of the season for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture includes estimates of which crops are going to increase in acreage and which crops are going to decrease. This is based on information from approximately 250 volunteer crop reporters. Durum acreage in the southern and central grain belt is expected to drop …