Cereals & Production Tips

Rural landscape with wheat field on sunset

Slowing growth to prevent lodging

Should you invest in a plant growth regulator for your cereal crops this season?

By Angela Lovell March 26, 2019

Where there’s enough moisture and high fertility levels, lodging can still be a major yield constraint. In cereal crops, plant growth regulators (PGRs) have been shown to produce shorter stems to reduce lodging and maintain grain yields. Researchers in Alberta are trying to optimize PGR use to prevent lodging and improve standability and harvestability in […] Read more

Barley, Corn, Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat, Weather

Feed weekly outlook: Spring weather may swing Prairie feed markets

By GFM Network News March 22, 2019

MarketsFarm — Weather conditions have the potential to swing feed grain markets in Western Canada over the next few weeks, although prices generally remain steady for the time being. “Spring is here, and as the snow melts it creates mud, road bans and all that lovely stuff,” said Brandon Motz of CorNine Commodities in Lacombe, […] Read more

Crops, Features, Oats

It’s a good time to be breeding oats

Oat research and development continues despite industry and government funding cuts

By Angela Lovell March 15, 2019

Despite a few stumbling blocks, the Canadian oat industry continues to advance and offer good opportunities for oat growers. The good news is that researchers are looking at new, value-added products that provide increased health benefits to consumers. Thanks to improvements in oat breeding and agronomic practices, Canadian oat yields have increased by 18 per […] Read more

Cereals, Corn, Crops, Markets

Feed weekly outlook: Prairie prices on the rise

By GFM Network News March 7, 2019

MarketsFarm — Feed grain prices have been on the upswing recently, according to Nelson Neumann of Agfinity at Stony Plain, Alta. “We saw them at the end of last week, the beginning of this week, really jump up. Guys were scrambling to get stuff in before road bans,” he said. He attributed the increased prices […] Read more

Cereals, Features, Oats

Managing disease in oat crops

Fungal diseases, bacterial diseases and viral diseases each need different management

By Angela Lovell March 1, 2019

Oat growers across the Prairies have a number of foliar diseases to watch out for in their fields: crown and stem rust and septoria leaf complexes. Oats can also harbour a lot of different species of fusarium but, to date, fusarium hasn’t become an issue to the point where it has impacted oat yield or […] Read more

Crops, Reuters, Spring Wheat

U.S. wins WTO ruling on Chinese grains

By GFM Network News March 1, 2019

Geneva | Reuters — The United States won a World Trade Organization ruling on China’s price support for grains, successfully challenging a calculation methodology that is also used by India. A WTO adjudication panel agreed on Thursday with the U.S. complaint that China had paid farmers too much for wheat, Indica rice and Japonica rice […] Read more

Barley, Corn, Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat

Feed weekly outlook: Market aims to ration tight barley supplies

By GFM Network News February 28, 2019

Tightening feed barley supplies in Western Canada have end-users looking to alternatives, with cheaper U.S. corn imports likely to keep a lid on prices. “Barley stocks are tight, so the market is trying to ration the amount of barley being used and it’s doing a pretty good job of that,” said Jim Beusekom of Market […] Read more

Cereals, News

Taking a look at CWRS protein levels in 2018

Prairie protein levels higher in 2018 than 2017

By Leeann Minogue February 27, 2019

Through its harvest sample program, the Canadian Grain Commission collects wheat samples from across the Prairies, grades them, and compiles the results. For the 2018 crop year, the CGC found an average protein level of 13.83 per cent for western Canadian No. 1 CWRS. On average, samples from Alberta and B.C. were higher than this, […] Read more

Cereals, Crops, Features

Crop advisor casebook: What caused the colour banding in this wheat field?

A Crop Advisor's Solution from the February 19, 2019 issue of Grainews

By Jacey Schettler February 21, 2019

One morning last May, I received a call from Dale, a farmer in Westbourne, Man., who farms around 3,500 acres of canola, wheat and soybeans. He told me he had been out walking his fields and noticed “striped” wheat plants. He said the striping, which appeared as yellow bands on the first and second leaves, […] Read more

Barley, Corn, Crops, Markets, Spring Wheat

Feed weekly outlook: Low ending stocks supportive

By GFM Network News February 21, 2019

With some of the lowest ending stocks in more than a generation, feed grain prices are doing quite well in Western Canada, said Ed Baldwin of AgChieve Grain Marketing in Winnipeg. Baldwin, AgChieve’s manager of advisory services, said Canada has its lowest ending stocks for feed grains in the last 35 years. On the world […] 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