ICE January 2024 canola with 20- and 200-day moving averages and nine-day exponential moving average. (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Purely technical canola market trending up

Activity expected thin until next week

MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market moved within a wide range during the week ended Wednesday, hitting some of its best levels in a month before running into resistance at the highs. With traders in the United States moving to the sidelines for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, activity should be thin and choppy until […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Large speculative short position in canola dips slightly

Net long in CBOT soybeans increases

MarketsFarm — The large managed money short position in canola futures dipped slightly during the week ended Nov. 14, as speculators bought back some of their bearish bets, according to the latest Commitments of Traders report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As of Nov. 14, the net managed money short position in […] Read more





Canadian Agriculture and Agrifood Minister, Lawrence McCauley (right) and CCC vice president, crop production and innovation, Curtis Rempel at the funding announcement at the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre at Glenlea, Man.
 Photo: Don Norman

Canola sector gets research boost

The federal government is putting up $9 million to drive the sustainable growth of Canada’s canola sector. The funding comes from the AgriScience Program—Clusters Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership and was announced today (Nov. 14) in Winnipeg by Lawrence MacAulay, the federal agriculture minister. “This new Canola Cluster will build on […] Read more

ICE January 2024 canola with 20-day moving average (yellow line, right column) and CBOT January 2024 soybeans (green line, left column). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Soy complex supporting canola

'Canola has been largely pulled up'

MarketsFarm — Amid falling crude oil prices, canola prices are staying strong, largely due to the Chicago soy complex, according to a Calgary analyst. Errol Anderson of ProMarket Communications has been impressed with canola’s recent rise. The January contract on ICE Futures was as low at $672 per tonne on Nov. 2 before rising to […] Read more


Axten Farms has been using controlled traffic farming on their southern Saskatchewan farm for about eight years. It is one of the changes in production practices that is helping to break up soil compaction, improve water infiltration rates and support improved crop yields.

Farmers assess the effects of soil compaction

How some producers recognize and manage the issue

While Mother Nature does its best in Western Canada to alleviate soil compaction through the freeze and thaw cycle, researchers suspect nature has a hard time keeping up with the pressure (figuratively and literally) of modern agricultural technology. Bigger, heavier equipment travelling over fields, particularly when soil conditions are wet, is believed to cause soil […] Read more

(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Net speculative short position in canola tops 100,000 contracts

Net long increases in CBOT soy

MarketsFarm — Speculative fund traders continued to add to their large short positions in canola futures during the last week of October, taking the net managed money short position over 100,000 contracts for the first time on record, according to the latest Commitments of Traders report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As […] Read more


ICE January 2024 canola with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Falling canola market seeks support

Canola seen as 'fairly cheap' but not attracting interest

MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market continued its months-long downtrend as the calendar flipped over to November, with the futures looking for an outside catalyst to spark a corrective bounce. While canola has seen occasional attempts at correcting higher over the past two months, any gains proved short-lived. “The oilseeds are very swingy and […] Read more

What manure does over and above its nutrient content is to provide organic carbon matter, which does wonders for soils.

Manuring cropland can be misunderstood and overdone

Sources of manure and compost

There are some 60,000 cow-calf farms and 20,000 dairy operations in Canada. Cattle numbers are around 12.5 million with more than 40 per cent of this total in Alberta. Alberta also had 90 per cent of the beef feedlots with lesser numbers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. There are 14 million hogs at any time in […] Read more