File photo of black beans. (Nhattienphoto/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: For growers, spring still far away

Just 'minor changes' expected in Manitoba acres

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Springtime still seems distant for southern Manitoba as snow remains and freezing temperatures persist. However, provincial pulse specialist Dennis Lange said current conditions are setting up well for seeding after temperatures rise and snow melts. “We’re still a little ways off. There are still snow drifts in the fields in most areas of […] Read more


CBOT May 2023 soft red winter wheat with 20-day moving average, MGEX May 2023 hard red spring wheat (yellow line) and K.C. May 2023 hard red winter wheat (orange line). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Chicago grains up on U.S. planting uncertainty

Hard wheats 'leading the way'

Reading Time: 2 minutes Mexico City | Reuters — Chicago corn futures reversed losses to close higher on Monday on concerns about U.S. planting delays, and wheat and soy also made gains. Corn made its comeback later in the session as traders speculated on weather conditions and planting schedules for springtime crops as cold temperatures linger in the northern […] Read more

ICE July 2023 canola with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola continues its collapse

Limited demand, more farmer selling seen

Reading Time: 1 minute MarketsFarm — After losing $62 per tonne the week before, the May contract on the ICE Futures canola market extended its losses for the week ended Wednesday with little relief on the horizon. Winnipeg-based trader Jerry Klassen of Resilient Commodity Analysis said the massive selloff is the result of farmers realizing there wouldn’t be a […] Read more


(Photo courtesy Canary Seed Development Commission of Saskatchewan)

Canary seed set for more acres

Crop seen as competitive against wheat for area in West

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — While the price of canary seed in Western Canada has come down over the past couple of years, there is optimism that acres devoted to the specialty grain will increase in 2023. David Nobbs, pulse merchant for Purely Canada Foods in Saskatoon and former chair of the Canary Seed Development Commission of Saskatchewan, […] Read more

A farm worker unloads Ukrainian-made fertilizer from a truck on April 5, 2022 to use on a wheat field near the village of Yakovlivka, outside Kharkiv, after it was hit by an aerial bombardment. (Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Ukraine faces lack of herbicides, pesticides for spring seeding

About a third of needed chemicals reported to be at hand

Reading Time: < 1 minute Kyiv | Reuters — Ukrainian farmers, which have already started the 2023 spring sowing, have only around 35 per cent of the herbicides and pesticides they need, analyst APK-Inform quoted on Monday official data as showed. The Russian invasion has left Ukraine seriously short of finances, seeds and crop protection products, which could have a […] Read more


A dried-out corn crop next to cotton planted into a dried-out cornfield at Tostado in Argentina’s northern Santa Fe province, on Feb. 8, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Miguel Lo Bianco)

CBOT weekly outlook: Argentina estimates lowered, but attention soon shifting north

U.S. corn, soyoil export outlooks 'a little concerning'

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Sizeable reductions to Argentina’s soybean and corn crops were confirmed in the latest supply/demand estimates (WASDE) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with more reductions likely in future reports. However, attention in the markets is starting to shift to North American weather, with spring seeding just around the corner. “The USDA was a […] Read more

Yellow peas. (Victoria Popova/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Manitoba growers not worried about Merit situation

Pea, canola protein processor in receivership

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — After Manitoba-based plant protein processor Merit Functional Foods went into receivership last Wednesday, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers (MPSG) executive director Daryl Domitruk said it is not a microcosm of the province’s pulse industry. Domitruk said MPSG learned about Merit’s financial situation through the media. He also added that some Manitoba pea growers […] Read more


Gary Millershaski, a farmer and scout on the Wheat Quality Council’s Kansas wheat tour, inspects winter wheat stunted by drought near Syracuse, about 170 km west of Dodge City, on May 18, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Julie Ingwersen)

U.S. winter wheat growers seed into dust as Plains drought persists

Reading Time: 3 minutes Chicago | Reuters — With seeding roughly halfway complete, the 2023 U.S. hard red winter wheat crop is already being hobbled by drought in the heart of the southern Plains, wheat experts said. Seeding plans may be scaled back in the U.S. breadbasket despite historically high prices for this time of year, reflecting rising global […] Read more

A sunflower crop north of St. Adolphe, Man. on Sept. 19, 2021. (Dave Bedard photo)

Manitoba’s sunflower crop smaller, better

Global supply, demand outlooks remain uncertain

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — If Canada’s 2022 sunflower seed harvest is to be the lowest in five years, you wouldn’t know it talking to producers of the crop. In its July satellite image-based principal field crops estimates released Monday, Statistics Canada projected sunflower seed production for the 2022-23 marketing year at 61,996 tonnes, 24.2 per cent lower […] Read more