The falling number test requires laboratory-like conditions, and is usually only done at selected central locations when there is a general concern about sprout damage.

Better than meets the eye?

Canada’s quality-control system still has a lot of support, but some are calling for grades to be determined by machines, not the human eye

Reading Time: 4 minutes Is that No. 2 CWRS just as good for milling and baking as a No. 1? Or does that No. 1 CWRS have some quality damage that can’t be seen with the naked eye, making it no better than a No. 2? The answer could be yes in both cases, sometimes, in cases that might […] Read more

(File photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canola exports slow down in latest weekly report

Reading Time: < 1 minute CNS Canada — Weekly Canadian canola exports were down during the week ended Sunday, hitting their lowest level since September 2017, according to the latest Canadian Grain Commission data. Canada exported only 129,000 tonnes of canola during the latest reporting period, which compares with the previous five-week average of 194,800 tonnes. Total canola exports during […] Read more


Major elevator companies have rarely if ever defaulted on payment, but it’s worth remembering that even they don’t guarantee beyond 90 days.

Making sure you get paid

Recent changes to the marketing system have prompted the entrance of new players, so it’s worth a refresher on who guarantees payment for grain, and for how long

Reading Time: 4 minutes Grain producers protect the investment they’ve planted, fertilized, watched grow, harvested and taken the pains to safely store, but it’s the Canada Grain Act that’s supposed to ensure financial protection from buyers that go bust or act unscrupulously. Farmers have never had to worry about payment from the large elevator companies which have historically dominated […] Read more

“Maybe we’ve been focusing on things like yield and maturity and disease tolerance, and protein hasn’t been as high on the merit list as maybe what it should be now.” – Dennis Lange, Manitoba Agriculture

Pea processor wants more protein

Mean protein in western Canadian peas peaked at 24.7 per cent in 2007, but declined to 22.1 per cent last year

Reading Time: 3 minutes Pea researchers have a new focus on protein as plans for the world’s largest protein-based pea-processing plant move ahead in Portage la Prairie, Man. Last January, Roquette, a French specialty food and pharmaceutical supplier, announced construction of the $400-million plant, expected to employ 150 people and process up to 125,000 tonnes of peas each year. […] Read more


Growing quality oats

Growing quality oats

Recommendations for oat agronomy from the new POGA Oat Growers Manual and research across Western Canada

Reading Time: 6 minutes Soil and rotation Oats grow best in black and grey wooded soil zones that have higher moisture, but can grow on sandy loam to heavy clay soils as long as they have good drainage. To reduce disease pressure and optimize yields, oats should not be grown after cereals. The best rotational crops include canola, hay, […] Read more

(Mark Wilson photo courtesy Louis Dreyfus Co.)

Producers lose transparency with end of weekly crush report

Reading Time: 2 minutes CNS Canada — Canada’s grains industry found itself shocked when the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association (COPA) announced Friday it would stop publishing its weekly report on member crushings. “I loved that report. In Western Canada, or Canada in general, I think any reports that give you kind of a weekly snapshot of what’s happening in […] Read more


Speculative buying sees canola prices firm up

Speculative buying sees canola prices firm up

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | CNS Canada – ICE Canada canola prices bounced around within a wide range during the week ended November 17, but finished on a firmer note as a rally in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans gave canola a boost. Any strength was largely tied to chart-based speculative buying, with no real fresh fundamental news […] Read more

Record weekly canola exports reported

Record weekly canola exports reported

Reading Time: < 1 minute Winnipeg | CNS Canada – Canada exported the most canola in a single week ever during the week ended November 5, according to the latest Canadian Grain Commission report. The CGC pegged weekly canola exports at 470,200 tonnes of canola during the reporting period. That compares with average weekly exports over the past year of […] Read more


When the wheat board monopoly ended, so did clearance associations reporting how much grain was being loaded to which vessels arriving or waiting at the West Coast and Thunder Bay.

Open market, but not-so-open information

Five years post-CWB, farmers are still waiting for information that puts them on a more even position with the companies buying their grain

Reading Time: 5 minutes The characters in the play “Waiting for Godot” and Prairie grain market transparency apparently have something in common — waiting for something that never arrives. It’s been five years since the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, when one of the goals was to expose Prairie wheat and barley growers to the mechanisms of […] Read more