(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Klassen: Rising feed grains pressure feeder market

Reading Time: 2 minutes Compared to last week, western Canadian yearling markets traded $3-$6 lower with some reports showing prices as much as $10 lower. Calves traded $2-$4 below week-ago levels; however, the market will be more defined next week, with many auction barns scheduling feature calf sales in the major feeding areas of Alberta. Feeding margins in the […] Read more

File photo of a quality control check on fresh peppers in a Canadian vegetable packing plant. (Jeffbergen/E+Getty Images)

Federal program to protect farms, workers from COVID-19 underway

'Highest-risk' farming operations to get priority, Bibeau says

Reading Time: 3 minutes Applications are now open for a federally-administered $35 million emergency on-farm support fund to help limit the impacts of COVID-19 on farms and on-farm workers. Aimed at farm workplaces and employee living quarters, the fund is being managed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), but cost-shared with participating producers at a 50-50 level. Money is […] Read more



A view of Anchorage, Alaska from Cook Inlet. (RobsonAbbott/iStock/Getty Images)

Trump issues permit for Alaska-to-Alberta railway

Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a presidential permit for a private-sector proposal to build a railway from northeastern Alberta’s oil sands to ports in Alaska, a project that still faces numerous hurdles. Trump said over the weekend on Twitter he would issue the permit, which he signed on Monday but […] Read more


The White Pass border crossing between Alaska and northwestern British Columbia, about 25 km north of Skagway, Alaska. The proposed A2A line would largely skirt B.C. en route from Alberta to Alaska. (Thierry64/iStock/Getty Images)

Trump-backed Canadian railway to Alaska faces high hurdles

Proponents say line could move grain, fertilizer as well as oil

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Washington | Reuters — A private-sector proposal endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump to build a railway from Canada’s oil sands to ports in Alaska would free landlocked crude but faces numerous steep challenges. Trump wrote on Twitter over the weekend that he would issue a permit for the Alaska-Alberta Railway Development Corporation (A2A Rail) […] Read more

(Country Guide file photo)

Prairie cash wheat: Bids mixed, reacting to futures and loonie

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Spring wheat bids in Western Canada were mixed during the week ended Thursday, as losses in U.S. futures were countered by support from a weakening Canadian dollar. The currency lost roughly a full cent during the week. Average Canada Western Red Spring (13.5 per cent protein) wheat prices were steady to down $2 […] Read more


(File photo)

Feed weekly outlook: Prairie grain prices on rise despite harvest

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Feed barley and wheat prices in Western Canada have been showing some unusual strength in late September, with prices rising despite seasonal harvest pressure. “Right now we’ve been seeing a lot of talk about exports and the need for feed at feedlots,” said Erin Harakal, senior trader at Agfinity at Stony Plain, Alta. […] Read more

Chickpeas. (CalypsoArt/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Chickpea production expected up in 2021

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Following an expected 11.4 per cent drop in Saskatchewan’s chickpea harvest this year, provincial pulse specialist Dale Risula is expecting an increase in 2021. In Statistics Canada’s most recent field crop report, issued last week, chickpea production in Saskatchewan was estimated to have dropped from 224,600 tonnes in 2019 to 199,010 tonnes this […] Read more



Green lentils. (Alexey Shipilov/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Lentil crop expected to spike in Alberta

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — One bright spot for Alberta agriculture in 2020 has been the province’s lentil crop. The amount of the pulse grown this year skyrocketed by more than 173 per cent than compared to 2019, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency reported Monday that lentil production in Alberta is set to hit a record […] Read more