Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — Shippers scrambled to shift freight onto trucks on Thursday as a strike at Canada’s biggest railroad, Canadian National Railway, hit its third day, leaving the critical fuel propane and other goods stranded. Some 3,200 unionized employees, including conductors and yard workers, hit picket lines on Tuesday in the biggest such action […] Read more
Propane shortage looms as CN strike hits third day
Propane-starved East’s grain growers seek end to CN strike
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers fighting through a soggy harvest in Eastern Canada have joined their western counterparts’ call for an end to the strike by Canadian National Railway workers — not to get grain out, but to get propane in. Restoring the supply of propane for Quebec’s farm businesses, in the wake of a Canada-wide strike launched Tuesday […] Read more
Knowing your wheat’s falling number critical this year
Reading Time: 4 minutes [UPDATED: Nov. 22, 2019] The ‘harvest from hell’ has resulted in one of the worst years in recent memory for sprout damage. That’s pushed down falling numbers and — since grain buyers have different approaches to handling this issue — increased the need for farmers to know the falling numbers for their wheat. But if […] Read more
Brazil Amazon deforestation soars to 11-year high
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil | Reuters — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose to its highest in over a decade this year, government data on Monday showed, confirming a sharp increase under the leadership of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. The data from Brazil’s INPE space research agency, which showed deforestation soaring 29.5 per cent […] Read more
U.S. states declare emergencies to help farmers in propane shortage
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Regional shortages of propane, which is used for heating homes and barns and by farmers to dry their crops, have led to emergency declarations covering nine U.S. Midwest states amid late harvests of soggy grains. Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin declared state emergencies beginning in late October, and continued last Friday to […] Read more
Millions of acres of canola freeze, compound ‘harvest from hell’
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Heavy snow and rain during harvest on the Canadian Prairies have left several million acres of canola buried until spring, the latest blow in a miserable year that may compound farmer problems into 2020. Canola is renowned as Canada’s most profitable crop, exported to China, Japan and Mexico to make vegetable […] Read more
U.S. propane bottlenecks not affecting Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Despite ongoing shortfalls of propane in some areas of the U.S. Midwest, the situation doesn’t appear to be adversely affecting Canada, according to the Canadian Propane Association. The late harvest in the Midwest has been further hampered by wet conditions, forcing farmers to dry their grain before putting it in the bin. As […] Read more
Feed weekly outlook: Prolonged Prairie harvest pushes up grain prices
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — A seemingly never-ending harvest across the Prairies has been responsible for a $10-$15 per tonne jump this month in feed grain prices, said Glen Loyns, general manager of JGL Commodities in Moose Jaw. “It’s probably gone up $5 this week,” Loyns said. This year’s extended harvest, coupled with large amounts of grain to […] Read more
Dorian swept swimming cows two miles to North Carolina beach
Reading Time: 2 minutes Cape Lookout National Seashore, N.C. | Reuters — Three cows have been spotted beachcombing on a remote barrier island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, swept to an unlikely grazing spot when Hurricane Dorian whipped waves powerful enough to carry them two miles from their home. One of the bovine bodysurfers was seen soon after the […] Read more
U.S. books latest end to soy harvest in a decade
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm —The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its oilseed crops outlook issued Wednesday, said the country’s 2019 soybean harvest will wind up the latest in 10 years. As of Sunday, the overall U.S. soybean harvest stood at 85 per cent complete, according to USDA’s weekly crop progress report. The pace was two points behind […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
