Cereals & Production Tips

Prairie cash wheat: CWRS down, durum up

By GFM Network News October 5, 2019

MarketsFarm — Wheat bids in Western Canada were mixed for the week ended Thursday. Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheats saw losses, while Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD) saw gains. The Canadian dollar was higher for most of the past week, topping off at 75.55 U.S. cents on Tuesday, […] Read more

These photos, taken on August 15 just west of Edmonton, show classic copper deficiency. The field is a sandy loam soil with five to six per cent organic matter. The roadway, built about 10 years ago, has shoulders made up from deep-dug clay loam piled onto the field from the ditch. This clay loam is low in organic matter, probably one to two per cent or less, but high in available copper (see more below, including video).

Cereals, Columns, Crops

Identifying copper deficiency in wheat

Ieuan Evans looks at 2019 growing conditions, including areas where copper levels are low 

By Ieuan Evans October 4, 2019

In early August in central Alberta I was still seeing yellow fields of canola. Honeybees and mosquitoes were having an extended nectar flowing season. I will stick my neck out as usual and make a few observations and prophecies across the Western Prairies. Crops are late in the northern part of the Western Prairies, but […] Read more

Paterson Grain’s current elevator at Rosser, Man., is the largest in its Prairie primary grain handling network at 121,000 tonnes capacity. (Dave Bedard file photo)

Crops, Oats

Paterson stakes Manitoba site for oat processing plant

By GFM Network News October 3, 2019

Up to a quarter million tonnes of oats per year could find a new end use as a Winnipeg agrifood company sets up a new oat processing plant near its home base. Privately-held Paterson GlobalFoods (PGF) announced Thursday it will start construction “immediately” on the new plant, on part of its 600-acre site next to […] Read more

File photo of a snow-topped field in Alberta. (Don White/iStock/Getty Images)

Barley, Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat, Weather

Feed weekly outlook: Snowfall boosts spot barley bids

By GFM Network News October 3, 2019

MarketsFarm — Spot barley prices have received support from last weekend’s snows in southern Alberta, but the major barley-growing regions were mostly spared. While the cold and wet weather has delayed harvest activity, a promising forecast should allow for harvest to resume in the Red Deer area, where most of the barley crop is located. […] Read more

A 2017 study maps out predictions for changes to the “water footprint” of rain-fed barley grown in agricultural Alberta. (Science of the Total Environment, March 2018)

Barley, Crops, Weather

University’s ‘Beefier Barley’ billboard binned

By GFM Network News October 1, 2019

A billboard about Alberta barley’s prospects under climate change in the University of Alberta’s ‘Truth Matters’ promotion — a series of ads meant to spark discussion about its researchers’ work — has been winnowed out of the campaign. Jacqui Tam, the Edmonton-based U of A’s vice-president for university relations, announced Sunday it would withdraw the […] Read more

Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat

Cash wheat: CWRS follows Minneapolis futures higher

By GFM Network News September 27, 2019

MarketsFarm — Cash wheat bids in Western Canada were mostly higher for the week ended Thursday. Gains were seen in Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD) wheats in all locations, while Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) saw gains in most regions. The Canadian dollar was firm with almost no movement. […] Read more

Barley south of Ethelton, Sask. in early August 2017. (File photo by Dave Bedard)

Barley, Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat

Feed weekly outlook: Barley’s slide slows as harvest drags

By GFM Network News September 26, 2019

MarketsFarm — The slide in western Canadian feed grain prices over the past few months shows signs of slowing, as concerns over harvest delays supplant earlier concerns over large crops and quality downgrades. “The weather over the next week or so doesn’t look that great,” Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge said Thursday. […] Read more

Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat

Spring wheat futures rally on North American weather woes

By GFM Network News September 25, 2019

MarketsFarm — Weather-related quality issues with North American spring wheat crops saw Minneapolis spring wheat futures rally sharply over the past three weeks, with more room to the upside as concerns mount over the state of the crop. The December contract hit a multi-year low of $4.865 per bushel at the beginning of September, but […] Read more

Crops, Reuters, Spring Wheat, Weather

Wet harvests hurt U.S., Canadian spring wheat quality

By Julie Ingwersen, GFM Network News September 21, 2019

Chicago | Reuters — Excessively wet conditions in the northern U.S. Plains and Canadian Prairies have hurt the quality of the region’s spring and durum wheat crops, potentially tightening supplies of top grades of the grains, handlers and agronomists said. Rains and heavy dew have slowed the harvest and, worse, caused mature, un-harvested wheat kernels […] Read more

Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat, Winter Wheat

Cash wheat: Bids up with U.S. futures, weak loonie

By GFM Network News September 20, 2019

MarketsFarm — Wheat bids in Western Canada moved higher during the week ended Thursday, as gains in U.S. futures, weakness in the Canadian dollar and concerns over harvest delays in Western Canada all provided support. The Canadian dollar was down by roughly a third of a cent relative to its U.S. counterpart on the week. […] Read more

GFM Network News

U.S. livestock: Cattle slip back, hogs gain

U.S. grains: Soy futures post biggest monthly gain in nearly five years on China trade optimism

Farm gate milk price to rise in 2026

Cereals