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In many cases, producers could be scrambling to find good seed for next year. Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seeds in Saskatoon says that in his 19 years in business he’s never seen anything quite so ugly.  Germination and vigor are low; disease is high. For instance, on red lentils, fewer than 10 per cent of …

A number of new factors positive to grain markets have emerged in recent weeks. The grain export ban in Russia is old news, but market analysts are now pointing to the recent cold snap in Russia that may have affected the winter wheat crop. In Australia, the story in recent weeks has been heavy rains …

It’s never fun at the time, but now it’s fascinating to look back at the pictures. The 2010 growing season must have set records for farm equipment mired in the mud. You’ve probably seen some of those shots circulating by email.  In case you’ve haven’t discovered it, there’s a website set up with scores of …

As grain producers make cropping and marketing decisions for the upcoming growing season, the number one concern continues to be too much moisture. For years, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture has published a stubble soil moisture map around this time. Not this year. Except for a few localized exceptions, the entire Saskatchewan grain belt has …

We have friends who spend a good chunk of the winter on Vancouver Island. Here’s a story they emailed us from the Left Coast: Animal lovers are nuts here. Hundreds of wild rabbits at the University in Victoria were captured by a group called EARS, the Earth Animal Humane Education and Rescue Society. The rabbits …

It sure isn’t easy to do export business these days. Pulse Canada reports that it’s continuing to work with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and industry players on a trade problem with India. India wants pulse shipments to be 100 per cent free of soil, something that isn’t possible with crops that you often have …

Producers are watching grain, oilseed and specialty crop markets with great interest these days as they make marketing decisions as well as cropping decisions for next year. The feed grain complex has been strengthening with better prices for feed barley in the domestic market. Pea prices have also improved with yellow peas now approaching $7 …

Producers in the United States grew a record amount of canola this year. A report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada lists American canola area at nearly 3.8 million acres. That’s an amazing 84 per cent increase from the previous year. About 87 per cent of the canola area was centered in North Dakota, with Oklahoma …

Farmland prices in Saskatchewan continue to increase. The 2009 values have just been released by Statistics Canada. This is the average value of farmland and buildings in each province. The average value for Saskatchewan has increased to $498 an acre, up from $453 in 2008 and $408 an acre back in 2007. The last few …

The November Pool Return Outlook was released yesterday. Wheat values were mostly down a bit, durum was up a little bit, while the malting barley PRO declined by $7 a tonne as compared to last month. What’s notable about prices this year is that the low grades still have pretty good value. You might not …

The latest farm income numbers from Statistics Canada show that 2008 and 2009 were record high years for farm income in Saskatchewan. In both years, realized net income on Saskatchewan farms topped $1.6 billion, the highest levels ever. For 2009, the realized net income from Saskatchewan represents half of the realized net income for the …

The George Morris Centre, an agricultural think tank located at Guelph, has just released a great paper on Canada’s supply management system for the dairy industry. Authored by Al Mussell, he paper argues for a reasoned analysis of the system, rather than the polarized debate we typically hear. There are also a lot of interesting …