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

U.S. grains: Soybeans tumble as China spat piles on demand worries

Grain markets hit by drop in demand for feed, biofuel

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean and corn futures slid on Monday as rising tensions between Washington and Beijing raised concern about further demand risk, on top of coronavirus disruptions to biofuel and livestock feed markets. Favourable crop weather also weighed on prices as planting advanced in the U.S. Midwest while rain across Europe looks […] Read more


CBOT July 2020 soybeans with Bollinger (20,2) bands. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans slide on renewed trade tensions with China

Corn, wheat also fall on heightened trade tensions

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures declined on Friday as renewed concern about trade tensions between the United States and China overshadowed fresh export sales to the world’s largest soybean consumer. Corn and wheat futures also fell on uncertain feed demand and good weather across much of the U.S. Midwest that signaled another strong […] Read more

Chickpeas. (CalypsoArt/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Chickpea acreage expected lower

Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — High global prices in the 2017-18 marketing year caused a global spike in chickpea production in 2018. It’s since taken a while for consumers to “chew through supplies,” which has put pressure on prices, according to Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodities. In a kabuli chickpea global outlook webinar hosted by the Global Pulse […] Read more


Precipitation across the Prairies over the two weeks ending April 8, 2020. (Map courtesy Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

Burnett on Markets: Weather woes span the Prairies

Reading Time: 2 minutes The weather during the last half of March provided some optimism about a normal start to spring. Farmers across the Prairies were preparing equipment, taking delivery of seed and fertilizer and looking forward to getting out into the field. Then the weather in early April dropped significant amounts of rain and snow across northern and […] Read more

Migrant workers clean fields in California’s Salinas Valley on March 30, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

Canadian, U.S. farms face crop losses on foreign worker delays

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Mandatory coronavirus quarantines of seasonal foreign workers in Canada could hurt that country’s fruit and vegetable output this year, and travel problems related to the pandemic could also leave U.S. farmers with fewer workers than usual. Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the […] Read more


Detail from the front of the CBOT building in Chicago. (Vito Palmisano/iStock/Getty Images)

CBOT weekly outlook: Pandemic drives Chicago prices lower

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to pressure U.S. markets, including the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), according to Scott Capinegro, president of Barrington Commodities at Barrington, Ill. “It’s like that movie Groundhog Day. You wake up and it’s the same thing every day,” Capinegro said. There’s a domino effect in the grain industry […] Read more

(MarketsFarm graphic)

Burnett on Markets: Suddenly agriculture is important

COVID-19 is putting food security in the spotlight

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — A trend has developed in the business news channels over the past week that has not been hard to miss. Suddenly the CEOs of big agriculture and food concerns are being featured front and centre during the business segments. Usually these companies are noted only when they release quarterly results and even then […] Read more


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

Temporary foreign workers to be allowed in, Canada reiterates

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will allow temporary foreign workers with valid visas to enter the country, officials said on Friday, offering possible salvation to the agriculture industry even as Ottawa moves to limit the spread of a coronavirus outbreak. Canada’s labour-strapped farms rely heavily on nearly 60,000 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to help plant […] Read more

Forecaster Drew Lerner speaks at Ag Days 2020 in Brandon. (Manitoba Co-operator photo by Alexis Stockford)

Favourable growing conditions forecast for major ag regions

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Canadian producers looking for challenging growing conditions elsewhere in the world to prop up commodity prices may be disappointed during the 2020 growing season. South America “If you’re looking for any help from South America for your canola or soybeans or corn, you’d better look somewhere else,” Drew Lerner, president of World Weather […] Read more