Sacramento | Reuters — Water regulators in California voted on Tuesday to outlaw watering the lawn within 48 hours of a rainstorm, the latest effort to spur Californians to conserve as the state enters its fourth year of drought. Facing a dramatic slowdown in voluntary conservation efforts by property owners, the state Water Resources Control […] Read more
California tightens water regulations amid long drought
WeatherFarm boosts local-level data for farmers
Prairie weather network WeatherFarm has moved to expand the data it can provide to farmers through its new daily email. The network, operated by ag meteorology firm Weather Innovations Consulting (WIN) in partnership with Glacier Farmmedia, owners of this website, gets its data mainly from over 1,100 weather stations set up at farms, grain elevators […] Read more
U.S. farmers seen cutting back on pricey fertilizers
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. farmers will likely use less nitrogen fertilizer this season with the cost sky-high even though the price of natural gas, the key ingredient to make it, is down 40 per cent from last year. The reduction in usage should hit corn plantings more than other crops, since nitrogen is the […] Read more
Chile’s campaign finance scandal fells fertilizer firm’s CEO
Santiago | Reuters — Fertilizer company SQM has fired its CEO after it became embroiled in an election campaign financing scandal that has rocked the Chilean establishment, tainting business leaders and politicians with close links to the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. SQM, which has the rights to some of the world’s largest reserves of […] Read more
Oregon declares drought emergency as snowpack levels drop
Portland | Reuters — Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a drought emergency on Tuesday in two rural Oregon counties, with more expected in the coming weeks, as the state suffers abnormally low snowpack levels. The declarations in Oregon come as much of the U.S. West grapples with severe drought conditions. Last week Washington’s Governor Jay […] Read more
CN shopcraft staff ratify labour deal
Updated, March 18 — Unionized rail car and locomotive repair, maintenance and inspection staff at Canadian National Railway (CN) have approved the 11th-hour deal that kept them from being locked out last month. CN, in a release Tuesday, said members of its shopcraft group of about 2,100 employees, represented by Unifor Local 100R, have voted […] Read more
Alberta ag minister books off after surgery
Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has named an associate agriculture and rural development minister to handle the portfolio while provincial Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson takes sick leave. Grande Prairie-Smoky MLA Everett McDonald, a farmer and former reeve for the County of Grande Prairie, was appointed Tuesday to the associate minister’s post. Olson, the ag minister since […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, soy dive on export woes
Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. soybean futures sagged 1.5 per cent to their lowest in almost five months on Tuesday, with export demand for U.S. supplies fading amid the expanding harvest in Argentina and Brazil, traders said. “The fundamentals are not friendly here; the South American crops are coming in with good yields,” Charlie Sernatinger, […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME live cattle turn up on beef prices, hogs mixed
Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures on Tuesday erased some of Monday’s losses, supported by short-covering in response to strong wholesale beef values, traders said. April closed up 0.375 cent per pound, to 153.575 cents, and June 0.5 cent higher at 145.475 cents (all figures US$). Tuesday morning’s choice wholesale beef […] Read more
Long liquidation looms in canola futures
CNS Canada –– Fund traders are still holding large long positions in canola, but could be poised to start liquidating some of those positions as prices near key chart support. Funds are sitting on a long position in “the mid-40,000 area”, according to a canola broker. “Further technical weakness would likely bring in some long […] Read more