(Dave Bedard photo)

Merged Manitoba crop groups qualify for checkoffs

Manitoba Crop Alliance also names top brass

Reading Time: < 1 minute The new unit formed from the merger of five Manitoba crop commodity organizations is set to begin collecting checkoffs for its founding groups’ crops, starting Aug. 1. The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announced Monday it now has its designation under the provincial Agricultural Producers’ Organization Funding Act. The designation allows the new organization to collect […] Read more

MGEX September 2020 spring wheat (candlesticks) and Kansas City (K.C.) September 2020 hard red winter wheat (yellow line). (Barchart)

CBOT weekly outlook: Spring wheat premium widening over winter wheat

Row crop futures stuck in sideways range

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — All eyes remain on weather conditions in U.S. grain and oilseed markets, with soybeans and corn stuck in sideways patterns while seasonal harvest pressure causes the spring wheat premium to widen over the winter wheats. The advancing winter wheat harvest has weighed on Chicago and Kansas City winter wheat contracts recently, with reports […] Read more



(USDA.gov via Flickr)

U.S. projects wheat acres at record lows, increases for soy, corn

Grain stocks as of March 1 down on year

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — As with last year, total wheat acres in the United States are projected to remain at all-time lows, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The department issued its prospective plantings estimates Tuesday. MarketsFarm director of markets and weather Bruce Burnett called USDA’s wheat and soybean estimates positive, while he said its […] Read more


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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

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Prairie cash wheat: Bids fall with U.S. futures

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Hard red spring wheat bids in Western Canada moved lower during the week ended Thursday, as a sell-off in U.S. futures weighed on prices. Concerns that the Wuhan coronavirus would lead to a slowdown in the global economy accounted for some of the broad speculative selling that weighed on most grain markets during […] Read more


File photo of a durum wheat field in Idaho. (Craig Morris photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Late North American durum faces quality downgrades

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Cool and wet conditions delaying harvest operations across North America’s durum-growing regions are cutting into the quality of the crop in both the U.S. and Canada, with widening price spreads likely going forward. “It’s been a challenging harvest,” said Erica Olson, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. “We did have some […] Read more

CBOT November 2019 soybeans with Bollinger (20,2) bands, a gauge of market volatility. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy futures end near unchanged

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures finished near unchanged on Thursday after initially rising on hopes for further Chinese purchases, traders said. China, the world’s largest soybean importer, will buy about six million tonnes of soy from the United States before trade talks in early October, said a chief analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence […] Read more


Barley south of Ethelton, Sask. in early August 2017. (File photo by Dave Bedard)

Feed weekly outlook: Barley’s slide slows as harvest drags

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — The slide in western Canadian feed grain prices over the past few months shows signs of slowing, as concerns over harvest delays supplant earlier concerns over large crops and quality downgrades. “The weather over the next week or so doesn’t look that great,” Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge said Thursday. […] Read more

Spring wheat futures rally on North American weather woes

Spring wheat futures rally on North American weather woes

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Weather-related quality issues with North American spring wheat crops saw Minneapolis spring wheat futures rally sharply over the past three weeks, with more room to the upside as concerns mount over the state of the crop. The December contract hit a multi-year low of $4.865 per bushel at the beginning of September, but […] Read more