(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Barley, wheat prices continue downward

Oats, canola meal also bound for feedlots

MarketsFarm — As colder temperatures descend onto the Prairies, buying activity for feed barley and wheat was just as frigid. “A lot of guys are fairly caught up with purchasing,” said Mike Fleischhauer of Eagle Commodities Inc. in Lethbridge. “You see the prices of wheat and barley start to trickle down a little bit. Corn’s […] Read more

Research studies in Western Canada have shown general applications of boron fertilizer are not warranted to optimize canola yields or quality.

Do Prairie crops need boron fertilizer?

Before you apply boron fertilizer, read this

We often hear about the need for boron (B) fertilizer to optimize canola production and occasionally for other crops. However, boron is not widely used as a fertilizer in Western Canada. In the fall of 2021, Fertilizer Canada surveyed western Canadian wheat and canola growers to determine fertilizer use. This survey found about 8.6 per […] Read more


ICE March 2023 canola with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola trading window lowered

A crude oil downturn would pressure canola, loonie

MarketsFarm — The ICE Futures canola market posted steady losses for five sessions, testing the lower edge of their well-established trading ranges before finally uncovering some support on Wednesday. The losses did damage from a chart perspective, with the activity bumping the trading window lower, according to an analyst. “Overall, both on old- and new-crop, […] Read more

OmniPower autonomous power platforms undergoing testing in Arizona. Saskatchewan grower Carl deConinck Smith uses the OmniPower autonomous system developed by Raven Technology to run a SeedMaster seeder and a New Leader spreader on his farm.

How to make the most of every acre

How precision ag tools can help boost efficiency and production

It’s often said you need the right tools to do the job right. That is certainly the case in agriculture, where today’s farmer relies more and more on leading-edge technologies to push the boundaries of efficiency and production. There’s no argument on that point from Shayla Wourms, who runs a family-owned grain farm in Saskatchewan along […] Read more


(Dave Bedard photo)

AAFC issues first look at 2023-24

Oats production expected down significantly on year; wheat, canola up

MarketsFarm — Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has released its first crop projections for 2023-24, forecasting a very notable drop in oats. In AAFC’s January supply and demand estimates, released Friday, it cut oat production to 3.611 million tonnes, down almost 31 per cent compared to 2022-23. The department chopped the carryout for oats by […] Read more

photo:  Beatriz Montes Duran/istock/getty images

Meta-analysis in canola

A review of nutrient and water use efficiency studies provides some valuable insights for farmers

Rising fertilizer prices and perilously low levels of precipitation in many areas have delivered a dangerous one-two punch to farmers across the Canadian Prairies over the past few years. A recent study conducted by a team of researchers in Alberta could offer producers hope on how best to contend with such extreme conditions. The researchers […] Read more


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

ICE weekly outlook: Canola’s steady week takes late turn

Outlook 'neutral to bearish'

MarketsFarm — While canola prices turned lower Wednesday, the week ending that day was full of rangebound trade activity with little movement. The March canola contract traded within a range of $832-$846.70 per tonne during the week, settling at the low end of the range after falling $5.20 on Wednesday to close at $832.70/tonne. Winnipeg-based […] Read more

The Resilient Rotations trial site in Lethbridge, Alta., is seen here on July 15, 2021, during extremely dry conditions. Lethbridge received 4.4 inches of precipitation during the 2021 growing season.

Resilient rotations

Researchers focus on precipitation use efficiency as a way to assess crop rotations

While extreme heat and drought made life miserable for farmers in many parts of the Prairies the past few summers, those conditions proved to be something of a silver lining for a group of researchers leading a project called Resilient Rotations. A key area of the study, which aims to develop a new approach to […] Read more


(File photo by Dave Bedard)

Fund traders flip back to short side on canola

Corn traders reduce net long position

MarketsFarm — After briefly holding a net long position to start the New Year, speculators were back holding a net short position in canola in the second week of January as they liquidated long positions and put on some new bearish bets. The latest Commitments of Traders (CoT) report compiled by the U.S. Commodity Futures […] Read more

Using a nitrogen stabilizing product such as ESN allows farmers to place more nitrogen in or near the seed row without damage to the seedling.

ESN fertilizer: it’s all about the blend

Recommendations will vary with soil conditions but a 50 per cent blend with urea is described as the “sweet spot”

Saskatchewan agronomist Shannon Winny says many of her customers find a combination of ESN and urea provides a valuable return on investment in most years and under variable growing conditions. ESN or Environmentally Smart Nitrogen is a controlled-release nitrogen fertilizer product first introduced by Agrium (now Nutrien) about 20 years ago. ESN is 44 per […] Read more