Crops & Production Tips - Grainews

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Crops, Fruit/Vegetables, Reuters

Syngenta to sell vegetable seeds operations

By Reuters, GFM Network News September 4, 2015

Zurich | Reuters — Swiss agrichemicals group Syngenta plans to sell its vegetable seeds business and buy back more than US$2 billion worth of stock in a campaign to boost shareholder returns after it rejected a takeover approach from Monsanto. “The board and management are determined to accelerate shareholder value creation and our actions today […] Read more

Euan Evans, plant pathologist points out the value of providing a crop the whole nutrient package to optimize yields.

Crops

Soil testing more relevant than ever

If you don’t know what nutrients are in the soil it’s hard to meet your crop’s needs

By Lee Hart September 3, 2015

To optimize crop yields, Ieuan Evans, a well-known western Canadian plant pathologist, urges farmers to get back to the basics — do a soil test and follow the recommendations. Evans, speaking to farmers at the Ag In Motion farm show near Saskatoon in July says farmers have been advised since the beginning of modern agriculture […] Read more

combine harvesting wheat

Warm, dry weather so far co-operating with this year’s harvest

Saskatchewan Crop Report for the week ending August 31

By Saskatchewan Agriculture September 3, 2015

Warm and relatively dry weather has allowed producers to make good progress on harvest. Twenty-nine per cent of the crop is now combined and an additional 30 per cent is swathed or ready to straight-cut. The five-year (2010-2014) average for this time of year is 14 per cent combined and 26 per cent swathed or […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Agrium)

Fertilizer markets seen holding relatively steady

By GFM Network News September 3, 2015

CNS Canada –– Prices for nitrogen and potash have weakened over the first half of 2015, but according to an industry analyst, the relationship between fertilizer prices and ag commodity prices is pretty much in line with the 10-year average. “I think we’ve seen some stabilization in fertilizer markets of late, which is promising,” said […] Read more

Record showers in August have already swamped parts of Argentina, with more rain on the way next month. (Argentina.gob.ar)

Corn, Crops, Markets, Reuters, Soybeans, Weather

El Nino seen pushing Argentina into planting more soy, less corn

By GFM Network News September 3, 2015

Buenos Aires | Reuters — The El Nino weather phenomenon is expected to start dumping torrential rains on Argentina next month, pushing farmers to plant more low-cost soy and less corn despite concern over lack of crop rotation in one of the world’s main food suppliers. Argentina, the No. 1 exporter of soymeal livestock feed […] Read more

(Stephen Ausmus photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Crops, Markets, Reuters

U.S. grains: Ample stocks, poor exports push wheat to multi-year lows

By GFM Network News September 3, 2015

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures sank to multi-year lows on Thursday, weighed down by ample supplies and weak demand for U.S. exports, traders said. A hefty supply base also sparked a sell-off in corn, which hit its lowest level since mid-June, while soybeans sagged on technical selling and rising harvest expectations. The Chicago […] Read more

Rain and eventually frost in store for Sask., Man.

By GFM Network News September 3, 2015

CNS Canada — Early-September rains will likely interrupt harvest progress in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, according to a U.S. meteorologist — but producers will still likely be able to avoid frost. Field work will operate around rains that are expected to fall between Sept. 6 and 9, said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc. “We’ve […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Canola stocks increase dramatically in StatsCan report

By GFM Network News September 3, 2015

CNS Canada –– It appears there’s a lot more canola in Prairie fields and bins than anybody thought. According to Thursday morning’s Stocks of Principal Field Crops report from Statistics Canada, the country had 2.3 million tonnes of canola in its stocks as of July 31 — 500,000 to one million tonnes more than analysts […] Read more

(Lisa Guenther photo)

Corn, Crops, Markets, Soybeans

CBOT weekly outlook: Corn, soybeans bearish on economic woes

By GFM Network News September 2, 2015

CNS Canada — CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) corn and soybean futures have abandoned fundamental trading in favour of moving alongside macro-markets, which for the most part are bearish. “It’s not all doom and gloom, but it sure isn’t pretty right now,” said Scott Capinegro, president at Barrington Commodity Brokers. Outside influencers have been prevalent […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Canola, Crops, Markets

ICE weekly outlook: Canola may drop more

By GFM Network News September 2, 2015

CNS Canada — ICE Futures Canada canola futures drifted lower during the week ended Wednesday, chopping up and down amid volatile financial markets. “A lot of canola has to come to market, and there’s a lot of guys that are cash-poor and they don’t have storage, so they have to sell it,” said Wayne Palmer […] Read more