Barley. (Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Strong demand supports prices

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Feed grain prices on the Prairies have been stronger, and well supported by strong demand. Nelson Neumann of Agfinity in Lethbridge said strong feed barley prices were due to an uptick in exports from the Prairie provinces. “That provided a nice support to the price floor,” he said, noting market participants had previously […] Read more

A field sample of wild oat screened with three chemical families within the Group 1 mode of action by the Tardif lab. Note there is resistance observed when Puma (a “fop”) was applied, moderate resistance when Achieve (a “dim”) was applied and moderate susceptibility when Axial (a “den”) was applied.

Pest Patrol: Herbicide-resistant wild oats in spring cereals

#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA

Reading Time: 4 minutes Q. Are there any solutions to control herbicide resistant wild oats in spring cereals? A. Wild oats have been an undesirable weed in spring cereal crops for many years, and its control has been limited to a handful of herbicides within the same mode of action (specifically, WSSA herbicide Group 1). Until recently, there have […] Read more


Gordon Harrison. (Manitoba Co-operator file photo by Allan Dawson)

Lots of flour to go around, millers’ association says

System is 'doing extremely well' and should have no problem keeping up with demand, CNMA's Gordon Harrison says

Reading Time: 2 minutes The grain supply chain is working as it should during the COVID-19 pandemic, says the president of the Canadian National Millers Association. “From the milling industry vantage point, the movement of grain from farm to the producer to the elevator systems to mills is doing extremely well,” Gordon Harrison said Tuesday. “The grain supply chain […] Read more



Canada Malting’s processing plant in Montreal. (CanadaMalting.com)

GrainCorp’s global malting spinoff gets shareholders’ blessing

Canada Malting to go to new owner, United Malt Group

Reading Time: 3 minutes Shareholders in the Australian owner of Canada’s biggest malt company have voted nearly all in favour of a spinoff for their worldwide malting assets. During their general meeting Monday in Sydney, participating shareholders in GrainCorp voted over 99 per cent in favour of resolutions which will see the company’s malt business become a standalone ASX-listed […] Read more

CDC Fraser shows good lodging resistance, an important trait for maintaining malting quality.

Balancing demands for both quality and yield in barley

New barley varieties show yield gains over old favourites AC Metcalfe and CDC Copeland. What’s needed now is industry acceptance

Reading Time: 4 minutes A quick scan of the farm press this spring might have been enough to convince you Canadian barley has a yield problem. The sharp drop in Prairie acreage suggests farmers may think the same thing — only 6.2 million acres were seeded last year, about two million less than 10 years earlier and half the […] Read more


As seeding season approaches, a new seed royalty pilot is getting off the ground, to some controversy.  Photo: File

Seed pilot project unveiled

Reading Time: 4 minutes The new Seed Variety Use Agreement (SVUA) pilot project, unveiled in Winnipeg Feb. 25, will demonstrate the benefits of farmers paying breeders a royalty for seed saved for planting. But the Prairies’ five wheat and barley commissions have “significant concern” about the project, they said in a news release. The SVUA pilot is being organized […] Read more



File photo of a canola field in northern France’s Normandy region. (Brasil2/iStock/Getty Images)

Lower grain production predicted from Europe in 2020

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — European grain production is expected to be down slightly in 2020, according to the first forecast for the year from European trade association Coceral. In the report, released Thursday, Coceral pegged total grain production for the European Union and United Kingdom in 2020 at 302.7 million tonnes, which would be down from the […] Read more

(Rahr.com)

Strong export demand, acreage ahead for barley

Lower supplies from Australia benefit Canadian growers

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Canadian malting barley acreage is expected to remain high in the coming year, mostly due to strong export demand. Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Center in Winnipeg, said tough harvest conditions were partially to blame for lowered malt barley output in 2019. “We had a fairly lousy harvest, […] Read more