Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher Brian Beres leads a tour through some of the Farming Smarter plots demonstrating the growth stages of durum seeded after different times in late winter and early spring as part of ultra-early seeding research work.

Get a head start on the season with ultra-early seeding

Seeding cereals in late winter contradicts the belief you can’t seed until the soil warms up, but research shows the crops don’t seem to mind

Getting some of the crop seeded toward the tail end of a western Canadian winter may seem like a whimsical idea, but field research has shown on those slightly warmer days when the snow is gone, ultra-early seeding of a cereal crop becomes a viable option. The concept of ultra-early seeding does come with a […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Prices slip during quiet January

Shortages of trucks, drivers still trouble cattle sector

MarketsFarm — With January being a quiet time there’s isn’t a whole lot of direction for feed grains, according to Brandon Motz of CorNine Commodities at Lacombe, Alta. Prices for feed barley and wheat have been slowing slipping, he said — especially with feedlots not having to buy and farmers not needing to sell — […] Read more


CBOT March 2023 soybeans with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy, corn slide on forecasts for much-needed Argentine rains

New survey calls for expanded U.S. wheat acres

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell on Thursday, retreating from seven-month highs set a day earlier as forecasts for beneficial rains in drought-hit Argentina sparked a round of selling, analysts said. Corn futures also declined on the outlook for Argentine weather along with wheat futures. Chicago Board of Trade March soybeans settled down […] Read more

The skeleton of a fish is seen in the Navarro lagoon, which dried up due to the climate phenomenon La Nina, in Navarro in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province on Dec. 5, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Agustin Marcarian)

Storms to bring rain to parched Argentine fields next week, grains exchange says

Drought has limited soy, corn planting

Reuters — A storm front should bring moderate to abundant rainfall across most of Argentina’s key agricultural area over the next week, the Buenos Aires grains exchange said on Thursday, which could help farmers plant their fields after a historic drought. Lack of rainfall in Argentina, the world’s largest exporter of soybean oil and meal […] Read more


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

U.S. grains: Soybeans, corn retreat off multi-month highs

Putin's comments on exports underpin wheat

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and soybean futures settled lower on Wednesday as traders booked profits after both markets set multi-month highs and as weather forecasts promised much-needed rains in Argentina’s crop belt, traders said. Wheat followed the weaker trend. Chicago Board of Trade March soybeans settled down 15-1/4 cents at $15.24-1/2 per bushel, […] Read more

Farmer Ignacio Bastanchuri stands in a wheat field at Navarro in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province on Dec. 5, 2022. (File photo: Reuters/Agustin Marcarian)

CBOT weekly outlook: Soy, corn markets’ eyes on South America

Wheat market remains sensitive to Ukraine news

MarketsFarm — Soybean and corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were boosted by last Thursday’s bullish supply/demand estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but attention has since shifted back to South American growing conditions. “The primary thing right now is South American weather,” said market analyst Tom Lilja of Progressive Ag at […] Read more


CBOT March 2023 corn with 20-, 100- and 200-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, soy up off early declines on export data

Chicago wheat follows suit

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn and soybean futures rallied to multi-month highs on Tuesday as signs of export demand and follow-through support from last week’s bullish U.S. government supply/demand reports overshadowed early pressure from wetter South American weather forecasts, traders said. Wheat followed the higher trend. CBOT March corn settled […] 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