Reading Time: 8 minutes The bad news is that dry weather cut yields across much of the Prairies in 2015. The consolation? This same weather kept fungal diseases in check. In fact, areas that were in the sweet spot of lower pressure but enough rainfall to carry yield were rewarded with exceptional crop quality. Country Guide recently spoke to […] Read more
Crop diseases take a bit of a break in 2015
Drier conditions this past season kept a lid on most crop diseases — but this is probably just a brief respite until environmental conditions line up again
Could we see a Lehman Brothers-style collapse in grain markets?
There's a big difference to market noise and market reality. We ask Errol Anderson, is it all just talk?
Reading Time: 6 minutes At the heart of the issue is something known as a letter of credit, or LOC. These are essentially promissory notes that are backed by a financial institution with credibility, and their purpose is to ensure the money is there. Now there’s a question hanging over global commodity markets in the form of the Anglo-Swiss […] Read more
Prairie crops had a bit of everything in 2015
Drought in the western Prairies had a lot of people concerned about production last season, but the latest information suggests the crop was bigger and better quality than expected
Reading Time: 5 minutes You can see it in the numbers — the StatsCan canola numbers that is. In August the agency predicted 2015 canola production at 13.3 million tonnes. By October that number had risen to 14.3 million tonnes and one industry watcher says it could be headed even higher. David Drozd of market advisory Ag-Chieve told Country […] Read more
Clubroot continues its march across prairie canola fields
So far nothing appears to have slowed the spread of clubroot, so some are suggesting it might be time to rethink our approach
Reading Time: 9 minutes Over the past dozen years the canola industry has poured an ocean of effort into halting the spread of clubroot around the Edmonton area. And while there have been advances such as new resistant varieties, one uncomfortable truth remains — the disease continues to spread. Dan Orchard, a Canola Council of Canada agronomist who discovered […] Read more
2016 could be a ‘battleground year’ for commodity prices
A ‘battleground year’ is how analyst Errol Anderson sees 2016. Prices will be profitable… sometimes…but success will only come to producers who rein in their emotions
Reading Time: 8 minutes It isn’t only agriculture. China has become the world’s largest market for an incredibly long list of commodities. Consider the manufacturing industry, for example, where the Chinese generate roughly half of global demand — they use 54 per cent of global aluminum production, 50 per cent of nickel, 48 per cent of copper and 46 […] Read more
Home on the range
So you think you could ranch in this almost forgotten corner of Saskatchewan?
Reading Time: 14 minutes It’s on the network of narrow highways that snake through the rolling, grass-covered hills of southwestern Saskatchewan that you first notice the quiet. You can drive for 50 miles at a time and only see the occasional farmyard off in the distance. In contrast to the busy Trans-Canada Highway to the north with its continuous […] Read more
The search for a ‘tipping point’ in corn production
Is corn ready for prime time on these Saskatchewan fields? Maybe yes, if we can get the marketing right
Reading Time: 4 minutes Which has to come first, the acreage, or the market to justify it? That’s exactly the chicken-or-egg, catch-22 sort of situation that farmers on the Prairies have found themselves in repeatedly in past years as their cropping options have changed. First it was the canola revolution of the 1970s and ’80s which made Canada into […] Read more
Do your homework before jumping into growing soybeans head first
Soybean Guide: Soybean varieties and the business case for growing them have been improving, but Saskatchewan isn’t Iowa yet. Even seed salesmen recommend going slowly at first
Reading Time: 5 minutes Soybeans have expanded well beyond their traditional base in Manitoba’s Red River Valley, so growers even farther west into Saskatchewan are giving them a close look. But they might want to wade through the hype before making any big decisions, says one agronomist who’s been working with new growers. Dieter Schwarz, a market development agronomist […] Read more
Wheat quality conundrum
Changes to the marketing system make providing consistent shipments more difficult than under the days of the CWB
Reading Time: 4 minutes It was in 2012 that the first complaints began to trickle in. Buyers long accustomed to high-quality Canadian wheat started expressing disappointment in the quality of their shipments. From nearly a tonne of peas in a 25-tonne wheat shipment to lower-than-expected protein levels and grade divergences, over the next few years the first quiet questions […] Read more
The risk of tried-and-true cereal varieties
Many growers may not realize just how much the agronomic package has improved over the last few years
Reading Time: 7 minutes New cereal varieties sometimes just can’t seem to get any respect. While many of each season’s new canola hybrids are snapped up well before planting season, new wheats and barleys often linger on the showroom floor, hoping someone will notice them. That’s an unfair and out-of-date attitude, says respected wheat breeder Ron DePauw, recently retired […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
