Minnesota Archives | Country Guide

Rep. Collin Peterson, chairman of the House agriculture committee, speaks to reporters at the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington on April 27, 2009. (File photo: Reuters/Mike Theiler)

U.S. House ag leader loses election, unsettling Midwest farm sector

By P.J. Huffstutter, Tom Polansek November 6, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Democratic U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, chair for the House of Representatives’ agriculture committee, failed to win re-election in Minnesota on Tuesday, a loss some agriculture leaders said could hurt the U.S. Midwest grain belt. Though Democrats retained control of the House and therefore will again chair the committee, Peterson’s exit could […] Read more

CBOT December 2020 corn with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

Crops, Markets, Reuters, Weather

U.S. grains: Corn, soy ease as harvest, export prospects weighed

Wheat ends higher after mixed trade

By Christopher Walljasper August 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybeans slipped on Thursday after a seven-month peak a day earlier, while corn eased as traders set recent storm damage against generally strong prospects for harvest yields. Wheat ended higher as traders digested competing signals for global supply. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade closed down […] Read more

Subject: Storage grain bin silos in a field of matured corn crop in harvest time.

Crops, Reuters, Weather

Minnesota fields thrive, Iowa storm damage continues on crop tour

By Julie Ingwersen, P.J. Huffstutter August 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Scouts on an annual U.S. Midwest crop tour continued to see fields battered by an Aug. 10 derecho storm in central Iowa on Thursday, with corn stalks snapped and ears littering the ground due to the hurricane-like winds. In Iowa, crop prospects swung wildly from field to field, according to scouts […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock

HyLife buys pork packing, hog production capacity

Firm buys stake in U.S. packer, Manitoba hog farming business

By Dave Bedard May 29, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes Canadian hog production and pork processing firm HyLife has moved to expand its reach in North American pork packing as well as Manitoba hog farming. La Broquerie, Man.-based HyLife announced last week it has bought a 75 per cent stake in Taylor Corp.’s Prime Pork, a packing and processing operation at Windom, Minnesota, about 200 […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock, Reuters

JBS shuts Minnesota pork plant due to coronavirus

By Reuters April 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — JBS USA said on Monday it would indefinitely shut a Minnesota hog slaughterhouse that produces about five per cent of the country’s pork, in the latest disruption to the U.S. food supply chain from the coronavirus pandemic. The closure limits the amount of meat the United States can produce for consumers […] Read more

Crops, Pulses, Weather

Pulse weekly outlook: Early snow hurts edible bean prospects

By Phil Franz-Warkentin - MarketsFarm October 16, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — An early snow storm hit key edible bean growing regions of Manitoba and the northern U.S. hard, with a large portion of the crop in the region now facing an uncertain future. “It is unprecedented what’s happened at this point,” said Tim Courneya, executive vice-president of the Northarvest Bean Growers Association, which represents […] Read more

Delmar Commodities’ Jordan Mills soybean crush plant at Roland, Man., about 25 km north of Winkler. (DelmarCommodities.com)

Crops, Soybeans

Ceres closes on option to buy Delmar Commodities

By GFM Staff August 19, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes U.S. commodities firm Ceres Global Ag Corp. has exercised its option and closed its deal to buy Manitoba grain merchandising firm Delmar Commodities. Ceres announced Friday it has completed the deal to buy all of Delmar’s shares for about $15.25 million in cash and assume about $7.6 million in existing term debt. The Minneapolis firm […] Read more

Water vapour imagery from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES East satellite on April 10, 2019 shows a powerful late-season winter storm expected to bring heavy snow and high winds to parts of the north-central U.S. Plains and the upper Midwest. Bright blue and white areas indicate high water vapour or moisture content. (Satellite map courtesy NOAA)

Crops, Reuters, Weather

Blizzard forces closure of some U.S. grain processors, elevators

By Reuters April 11, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A second “bomb cyclone” blizzard hitting the United States was limiting the movement and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat around the Midwest and Plains on Thursday. Grain trader Cargill said it was closing three of its grain handling facilities in Minnesota, two in South Dakota and one in Nebraska on […] Read more

CBOT May 2019 soybeans with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

Crops, Markets, Reuters

U.S. grains: Corn, soy up a bit on weather woes, trade hopes

By Julie Ingwersen April 10, 2019

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures closed higher on Wednesday on light technical buying as a blizzard bore down on portions of the Plains and Midwest, threatening to delay plantings, analysts said. Wheat futures fell, recording a fifth straight lower close, as traders focused on plentiful world supplies. Chicago Board of Trade […] Read more

Tom Geisler surveys damage to his farm, following flooding at Winslow, Neb., northwest of Omaha, on March 20, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Humeyra Pamuk)

Crops, Markets, Reuters, Weather

U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods

By Humeyra Pamuk, P.J. Huffstutter, Tom Polansek March 20, 2019

Reading Time: 4 minutes Winslow, Neb./Chicago | Reuters — Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could — in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, […] Read more

Another swine flu variant case appears in Manitoba

Farm workers qualify for Alberta’s ‘critical worker’ benefit

Potash partnership with BHP ‘not our focus,’ Nutrien executive says

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