Wheat in progress west of Pathlow, Sask. on Aug. 1, 2022. (Dave Bedard photo)

Crop, livestock prices offset reduced marketings in 2022

StatCan data on farm cash receipts tracks recovery off 2021 drought

Reading Time: 2 minutes New full-year data on Canada’s farm cash receipts in calendar 2022 show how increased commodity prices last year more than offset the drop in quantities sold. Statistics Canada on Tuesday released figures showing Canadian farm cash receipts in 2022 at $94.9 billion, up 14.1 per cent from 2021, including crop receipts of $53.9 billion (also […] Read more

File photo of a cornfield in Argentina. (Reisegraf/iStock/Getty Images)

Revisions possible for Argentina corn, wheat carryouts

USDA attache has eyes on drought conditions

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — There should be changes to 2022-23 Argentina corn and wheat endings stocks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) attaché in Buenos Aires. The Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report cited a sharp increase in the carryover for corn and a smaller bump up when it came to wheat. The effects of […] Read more


CBOT March 2023 soybeans with 20-day moving average (yellow line, right column) and CBOT March 2023 soymeal (brown line, left column). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybean futures climb as soymeal soars

Chicago corn retreats, wheat inches higher

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures rose on Thursday as uncertainty about crop prospects in Argentina lifted soymeal futures to life-of-contract highs, traders said. Corn futures fell on technical selling and a bounce in the U.S. dollar, which tends to make U.S. grains less competitive globally, although U.S. corn export sales in the latest […] Read more

(RyanJLane/E+/Getty Images)

U.S. beef cow herd falls to lowest level since 1962, USDA says

Last year saw record cull, Rabobank reports

Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. beef cow herd dropped to its lowest level since 1962, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed on Tuesday, after a severe drought raised costs for livestock feed. Ranchers increasingly sent cows to slaughter last year, instead of keeping them to reproduce, as dry weather reduced the amount of pasture […] Read more


File photo of a cow grazing near Leader, Sask., about 85 km south of Kindersley. (James_Gabbert/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan holds Crown grazing rents at last year’s levels

Also, leaseholders on drought-downgraded land eligible for rate cut

Reading Time: 2 minutes Cattle producers leasing Crown land for grazing in Saskatchewan won’t see a rate hike this year and may be eligible for a significant rate cut. The provincial government announced Wednesday it has frozen the rates charged to producers who lease Crown grazing land in 2023 at their 2022 level. The freeze will apply to all […] Read more

CBOT March 2023 soybeans with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy, corn slide on forecasts for much-needed Argentine rains

New survey calls for expanded U.S. wheat acres

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell on Thursday, retreating from seven-month highs set a day earlier as forecasts for beneficial rains in drought-hit Argentina sparked a round of selling, analysts said. Corn futures also declined on the outlook for Argentine weather along with wheat futures. Chicago Board of Trade March soybeans settled down […] Read more


The skeleton of a fish is seen in the Navarro lagoon, which dried up due to the climate phenomenon La Nina, in Navarro in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province on Dec. 5, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Agustin Marcarian)

Storms to bring rain to parched Argentine fields next week, grains exchange says

Drought has limited soy, corn planting

Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — A storm front should bring moderate to abundant rainfall across most of Argentina’s key agricultural area over the next week, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Thursday, which could help farmers plant their fields after a historic drought. Lack of rainfall in Argentina, the world’s largest exporter of soybean oil and meal […] Read more

A submerged and abandoned car is seen in floodwaters near a vineyard after winter storms at Forestville, California on Jan. 13, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Fred Greaves)

California rainstorms fade as death toll reaches 20

Drought to remain an issue for much of state

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The parade of atmospheric rivers that pounded California for three weeks finally faded on Monday, enabling the state to begin lengthy repairs to roads and levees as the White House announced U.S. President Joe Biden planned to survey the damage. The nine consecutive rainstorms that inundated California in succession since Dec. 26 killed […] Read more


Flooding from the Salinas River forces the closure of a road at Salinas, California on Jan. 12, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Nathan Frandino)

California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for next

Also: Why all this rain won't end California's drought

Reading Time: 4 minutes Sacramento | Reuters — Rain-soaked Californians took advantage of a break in a weeks-long deluge to haul away dead trees, restore downed power lines and prepare new stacks of sandbags before another series of storms hits the state beginning Friday. In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were […] Read more

A drone photo from the Sampona commune of Madagascar on Feb. 11, 2022, shows Zebu cattle drinking water from a large puddle created from Cyclone Batsirai. The island nation’s south has been experiencing severe drought for the past four years, putting it in danger of what the World Food Programme calls “the world’s first climate change famine.” (Photo: Reuters/Alkis Konstantinidis)

Last year tied as world’s fifth-warmest on record, U.S. scientists say

Global CO2 emissions continue to rise

Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — Last year was the world’s joint fifth-warmest on record and the last nine years were the nine warmest since pre-industrial times, putting the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5 C in serious jeopardy, U.S. scientists said on Thursday. Last year tied with 2015 as the fifth-warmest year […] Read more