Reading Time: < 1 minute Unseeded crop acres in Manitoba will likely reach a record high this year due to excessive wetness, a provincial government official told Reuters on Monday. The province is working to calculate an estimate, and it appears Manitoba will exceed the record of nearly 1.4 million unplanted acres set in 2005, said David Koroscil, manager of […] Read more
Wetness to push Man. unseeded acres to record
Wet conditions hit size of Prairie wheat crop: CWB
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canada’s Prairie crop belt will produce less wheat and more barley this year, with excessive moisture in Manitoba and Saskatchewan limiting the projected harvest, the Canadian Wheat Board said on Tuesday in its first forecast of the year for the region. Flooding will hit the world’s biggest spring wheat and durum exporter for the second […] Read more
Rains stall Saskatchewan seeding
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers in waterlogged parts of eastern Saskatchewan are nearly out of time for fields to dry in time for planting, after steady rains in the past few days, provincial government officials said Wednesday. “Every second day for the past week, it seems like it’s been raining and raining,” said Daphne Cruise, regional crops specialist with […] Read more
Wheat, barley single desks to end together: CWB
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa plans to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on spring wheat, durum and barley crops simultaneously in August 2012, the board’s chairman said after meeting with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz on Tuesday. Ritz made his first-ever visit as minister to the CWB’s Winnipeg head office for a brisk 30-minute meeting to directly inform […] Read more
Tories aim to end CWB single desk in 2012
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s Conservative government will likely introduce legislation this autumn that will end the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on wheat and barley in 2012, the returning federal agriculture minister said Wednesday. Western Canada’s grain industry has operated since the Second World War under a monopoly that forces farmers to sell wheat and barley to the […] Read more
Viterra not commenting on GrainCorp chatter
Reading Time: 2 minutes Viterra’s chief executive declined to comment on Wednesday on his company’s possible interest in acquiring GrainCorp, a leading Australian grain handler that market watchers see as a takeover target. However, CEO Mayo Schmidt, responding to a question at the BMO Capital Markets farm investor conference in New York, noted Australia’s grain industry is in consolidation […] Read more
CWB’s former CEOs see tough road ahead
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Wheat Board faces a tough battle to survive as a voluntary pool competing against grain-handling heavyweights, two former chief executives of the monopoly seller say. The big three Canadian grain handlers — Viterra, Richardson International and Cargill — won’t easily welcome a new competitor and the board is hobbled without elevators and port […] Read more
Red River to crest in Winnipeg this week
Reading Time: < 1 minute A weekend storm that brought snow, rain and strong winds to the already flooded Red River Valley created large waves but did not inflict major damage on flood defenses in Manitoba. The Red River is expected to peak in Winnipeg on Wednesday or Thursday at levels slightly below those of 2009 and 2006, and well […] Read more
CWB to survive without monopoly, Ritz says
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Wheat Board, the last major agricultural marketing monopoly in the world, can survive the loss of its exclusive hold over the buying and selling of Western Canada’s wheat and barley and compete in an open system, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told Reuters on Tuesday. Ritz’s Conservative Party won a majority government on Monday, […] Read more
Prairie seeding still on hold, better weather coming
Reading Time: < 1 minute Western Canada’s farmers will likely keep their tractors parked this week at a time when they’re usually seeding crops, as fields remain flooded after a stretch of cool temperatures, a Canadian Wheat Board official said. Seeding has not started and looks 10 days to three weeks behind schedule, the same outlook as a week ago, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
