Reading Time: 3 minutes CNS Canada — After predictions of record canola area and a drop in pulse acres, traders and analysts are doubtful of Statistics Canada’s predictions for smaller canola acres, much larger wheat acres and only minor reductions in pulse acres. “It’s unusual for everybody to just be this out of whack on this report,” said Ken […] Read more
Grain trade skeptical of StatsCan’s acreage outlook
EU nations back ban on all outdoor neonic use
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — European Union countries backed a proposal on Friday to ban all use outdoors of insecticides known as neonicotinoids that studies have shown can harm bees. The ban, championed by environmental activists, covers the use of three active substances — imidacloprid, developed by Bayer CropScience; clothianidin, developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and […] Read more
BASF set to pick up Bayer’s Poncho, ILeVO treatments
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bayer’s seed treatments Poncho and ILeVO could soon have a new owner, as part of another deal with fellow German chemical firm BASF. BASF, which last October agreed to buy several Bayer CropScience assets including its global glufosinate-ammonium herbicide business and LibertyLink trait, announced another 1.7 billion-euro (C$2.65 billion) deal Thursday for an additional package […] Read more
ICE weekly outlook: Canola awaits acreage report
Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — This week’s acreage estimates from Statistics Canada could bring an end to canola’s recent chart surge upward — or could give futures the impetus to move even higher. The dominant July contract closed Wednesday at $535 per tonne, a gain of $8 from the previous Wednesday’s close. Prairie farmers on Friday will […] Read more
Out-competed
Again, the Australians are showing us how we’d market our crops if we had our act together
Reading Time: 7 minutes Is the Canadian grains sector being out-marketed globally? This is a question that has nagged me since February 16, the date the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre released new information brochures for Australian wheat, barley, oats, canola and pulses. “These publications are aimed at international purchasers of Australian grain,” the association (AEGIC) said in its […] Read more
Trade predicts fewer pulse acres, another canola record
Reading Time: 3 minutes CNS Canada — With the uncertainty regarding the pulse exports to India, it’s looking like 2018 could see more canola acres planted in Canada. Statistics Canada will release its Principal Field Crop Areas report on Friday (April 27). Last year saw Canada’s canola area at a record 23 million acres, but this year could again […] Read more
Leadership on the go
What does it take for farmers like Saskatchewan’s Bernie McClean to make themselves into better business leaders?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Growing as a leader takes stretch goals, and it takes finding out about your weaknesses and strengths. It might also take consciously building a network of smart, capable people, and finding mentors and role models to look up to. Plus it takes learning how to really listen, and how to be really heard. And none […] Read more
The reason for Monosem
This European planter isn’t new, but the mindset behind it is grabbing more attention among producers looking to cut costs and boost performance
Reading Time: 5 minutes With the high cost of farmland, the focus for a growing number of producers these days is productivity. But this is productivity managed with an extremely sharp pencil. That helps explain the heightened interest in Monosem planters, because of their potential role in helping growers reduce their seed costs. Many growers have already attempted to […] Read more
ICE weekly outlook: Sturdy canola watching weather
Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Canola futures are trading at roughly the same level they were a month ago, but the commodity is looking much more expensive from an end-user’s perspective, as crush margins have lost about $25 per tonne since the middle of March. “The Canadian dollar has been going up and bean oil is making […] Read more
Giving crop roots a boost
Researchers can now identify the microscopic organisms on which roots depend, and are discovering ways to make their relationships even more effective
Reading Time: 4 minutes For as long as plants have been growing on land, their roots have shared a symbiotic relationship with microbes in the soil. Arbuscules — the microscopic nutrient-gathering hairs of mycorrihizae — have been found connected to 400-million-year-old plant root fossils from the Rhynie chert in Scotland. A paper by Winfried Remy et al, published in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
