(ThamKC/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. fuel industry frazzled as EPA misses biofuel volumes deadline

COVID-19 fallout complicates process

Reading Time: 2 minutes New York | Reuters — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was set to miss a deadline Monday to announce how much renewable fuel the nation’s refiners must blend into their fuel mix next year, raising uncertainty in the fuel market and prompting one biofuel association to threaten to take the agency to court. Under federal […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan report to provide clarity on 2020 crop production

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Market participants and producers will be looking to Statistics Canada’s principal field crop report, due out Thursday, for clarity regarding 2020 crop yields. “We’re looking to see how severely the heat damaged the crop, and how yield estimates were tempered later in the growing season,” said Jerry Klassen, an analyst in Winnipeg. Klassen […] Read more


CBOT March 2021 wheat with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Wheat slides on Russian export prospects

Soybean, corn futures also dip

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures fell more than three per cent on Monday on prospects that Russia, the world’s top supplier of the food grain, may raise its export quota, analysts said, along with long liquidation at the end of the month. Soybean and corn futures dipped as rains fell on parts of […] Read more

A farmer prays to mark the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru and founder of Sikh faith, at Singhu border near Delhi on Nov. 30, 2020, at the site of a protest against newly passed farm bills. (Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

India’s Modi refuses to back down on farm reforms despite protests

Reading Time: 2 minutes New Delhi | Reuters — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday resisted calls for the repeal of farm reforms that have ignited the biggest protests by farmers in years around the national capital, saying they were being misled and that deregulation would benefit them. Thousands of people from the big farming state of Punjab […] Read more


A CNH manufacturing plant at Sorocaba, west of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil. (Photo courtesy CNH Industrial)

CNH to work with Microsoft, Accenture on ‘smart’ vehicles

Reading Time: < 1 minute Milan | Reuters — CNH Industrial has set up a five-year collaboration with Microsoft and Accenture to help it to develop “smart” and connected industrial vehicles, the Italian-American vehicle and equipment maker said on Monday. The programme, part of CNH Industrial’s digital transformation plans, is expected to help the group “achieve significant revenue growth,” the […] Read more

The seed sector, particularly cereals, needs reinvestment in breeding, hence the drive to establish Seeds Canada.

Is a united seed sector possible in Canada?

Finding modernization, value creation and synergy in a streamlined seeds agency

Reading Time: 7 minutes In spite of the size of agriculture in Canada, its home-grown seed industry is relatively small. Wheat and canola represent our two largest commodities by area, yet the domestic share of research and plant breeding activity is underwhelming. In part, that’s linked to the fact that the seed sector is comprised of a variety of […] Read more


Versatile’s Fury high-speed compact disc in transport mode. (Versatile-ag.com)

Versatile to move tillage equipment work to Winnipeg

Buhler to halt production at Vegreville next fall

Reading Time: 2 minutes The company that makes Versatile tractors and tillage equipment is set to consolidate those product lines at its plant in Winnipeg, pulling the work out of its plant in east-central Alberta. Farm equipment maker Buhler Industries announced Friday it will halt production at the former Ezee-On manufacturing plant at Vegreville, Alta. in September 2021 and […] Read more

MGEX March 2021 wheat with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

Prairie cash wheat: Choppy U.S. futures lead to mixed bids

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Spring wheat bids in Western Canada were mixed during the week ended Thursday, as choppy activity in U.S. futures spilled into the cash market. The futures traded within a wide range during the week, with the Minneapolis March spring wheat contract hitting its highest level in three weeks at one point before falling […] Read more


CBOT January 2021 soybeans with 20- and 50-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans firm as South American crops struggle

Corn, wheat futures also higher

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean futures ended higher on Friday as continued dryness in South America threatened to stress the crop in Brazil and Argentina, while strong export demand strengthened corn and wheat. Chicago Board of Trade’s most-active soybean futures added 7-3/4 cents to $11.91-3/4 a bushel, ending the week up 10-3/4 cents for […] Read more

Verticillium microsclerotia are small grey spots, almost like the pycnidia inside a blackleg lesion. Verticillium specks are tinier, more numerous and under the epidermis, while blackleg fruiting bodies are always on the surface.

Add another one to your canola scouting list

What you thought was sclerotinia might be verticillium stripe, and the Canola Council is making it a research priority

Reading Time: 4 minutes It first appeared in Manitoba fields in 2014, and now it’s showing up in Manitoba’s crop reports. “Canola yields tend to be disappointing for farmers, with heat blast and verticillium stripe suspected as contributing factors,” said a provincial summary in mid-September. The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) says verticillium stripe (VS) is caused by V. […] Read more