(TopconPositioning.com)

Brandt deal for Topcon distributor in Ontario falls through

GeoShack says will remain 'independently owned'

Reading Time: 2 minutes A proposal that would have made farm equipment maker Brandt the exclusive dealer for Topcon GPS equipment in Canada has fallen through without a sealed deal. GeoShack Canada, the “master dealer” for TopCon equipment in Ontario through its locations in Toronto, Ottawa and London, announced Tuesday that a completed acquisition by the Regina-based Brandt Group […] Read more


Bayer’s cross symbol hangs in a terminal at Frankfurt International Airport. (Typhoonski/iStock Editorial/Getty Images)

Investors pile into Bayer bond to pay settlement charges

Reading Time: < 1 minute Amsterdam | Reuters — Investors piled into a Bayer bond on Wednesday that will help pay for a long-negotiated settlement of U.S. lawsuits claiming its widely-used herbicide Roundup caused cancer. Demand for the four-tranche bond sale, whose proceeds will include the litigation payments, exceeded 17.5 billion euros, nearly three times the six billion euros (C$9.15 […] Read more

CBOT September 2020 corn with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn continues upward on USDA acreage data, weather worries

Wheat, soy also firm on lower-than-expected USDA acreage; traders eye forecasts for warm, dry Midwest weather

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn futures extended a rally on Wednesday to their highest in more than three months after a steeper-than-expected reduction to the U.S. government’s 2020 corn acreage estimate, analysts said. Soybeans and wheat gained after the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s acreage report on Tuesday also showed smaller-than-expected plantings of the grains. […] Read more


CBOT September 2020 corn with 20- and 50-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, soy climb on smaller-than-expected acreage view

Wheat follows corn, soy higher

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago corn futures surged nearly four per cent on Tuesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that American farmers planted 92 million acres of corn this spring, a figure that fell below a range of analyst expectations. Soybean futures rose after USDA put U.S. plantings at 83.8 million acres, up […] Read more

CBOT July 2020 corn with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, wheat end higher ahead of USDA reports

Chicago soy also firms; expectations of bumper harvests keep lid on prices

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago corn futures rose on Monday on short-covering and position-squaring ahead of key reports due on Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and word that China was in the market for the grain after futures fell to a seven-week low last week, analysts said. Wheat rose, bouncing from contract […] Read more


An image created by Nexu Science Communication, together with Trinity College in Dublin, shows a model structurally representative of a betacoronavirus, the type of virus linked to COVID-19. (Nexu Science Communication via Reuters)

Ontario pledges farm recruiter crackdown as COVID-19 outbreaks grow

Ford rips 'fly-by-nighters just trying to make a quick buck'

Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto | Reuters –– Ontario will crack down on “fly-by-night” recruitment agencies sending workers on to farms, the premier said on Monday, after a testing blitz identified a major coronavirus outbreak on a farm in southwestern Ontario. “We’re reaching out to all the farmers, we’re getting a list of these recruitment agencies. We found out […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Attention turns to yield potential after StatsCan report

Future tweaks to acreage numbers seen as unlikely to sway markets

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Updated acreage estimates from Statistics Canada came largely within market expectations, with the focus now shifting to growing conditions and yield potential. The survey was completed in early June “and may not have captured all of the seeding delays and potential shifts that may have happened in central/northern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan because […] Read more


File photo of an Alberta wheat field. (ImagineGolf/E+/Getty Images)

StatsCan survey shows bump up in wheat acres, particularly durum

Farmers back off canola, soybeans; pandemic expected to cause other problems for ag

Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian farmers planted slightly more wheat overall in 2020 than in 2019, but the coronavirus outbreak will pose “unique challenges” in the production and distribution of crops, Statistics Canada said on Monday. Farmers planted 25 million acres of wheat, up 1.5 per cent from 2019, thanks in part to a 16.2 […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canola area expected to be lower in Monday’s StatsCan report

Later-seeded areas expected to add pulse, barley, durum acres

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Market participants generally expect canola acreage will be revised downward in a second acreage estimate due out Monday from Statistics Canada. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about canola acres,” Ken Ball of P.I. International in Winnipeg said, noting acreage was “definitely lost” in central and northern Alberta due to wet spring conditions. In […] Read more