Finding the price in the new age

Finding the price in the new age

With delisted futures contracts, who’s responsible for price discovery?

Over the past five years there have been major changes to the Prairie grain marketing landscape that have — or should have — changed the way you market your grain. The biggest change, and no doubt the catalyst for many of the changes since, was the removal of the monopoly marketing powers of the Canadian […] Read more



Canada Bread has been complaining that since the CWB was dismantled, sourcing consistent quality of wheat has been difficult.

Canadian Wheat Board is missed

Changes to Canadian grading and specification systems causing concerns

Oh, boy… the Canadian Wheat Board may be coming back! Not likely, I am just being an alarmist, but it was interesting to read in our sister pub — the Western Seducer — where some bread manufacturers are mourning the loss of some features the CWB offered. I haven’t heard too many complaints about the […] Read more

red spring wheat

New class coming for 29 wheats

More than two dozen older Hard Red Spring wheat varieties are being reclassified

Western Canadian farmers won’t have to make any major new decisions on wheat varieties this year, but come the spring of 2018 they will have to pay attention to whether some of their tried and true varieties have been moved to a different class. Creating a new classification for some long standing wheat varieties that […] Read more



Watch those pricing signs

Watch those pricing signs

Grade and protein spreads change during the year. Take advantage of change to increase your profits

My last column talked about futures spreads, and how you understand what’s happening in the marketplace by watching how and why spreads change over time. Now, a look at more pricing signals: grade and protein spreads. During the era of the Canadian Wheat Board, grade and protein spreads changed very little throughout the marketing year. The CWB, […] Read more


There’s a new processing giant on the block

Change is in store for farmers with the sale of Legumex Walker's Special Crops Division

On November 9, 2015 Legumex Walker shareholders voted overwhelmingly to accept The Scoular Company’s offer to buy its Special Crops Division for $94 million. The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the end of November. This marks the end of Legumex Walker’s journey as one of […] Read more

Lorne Hehn, shown here in an undated photo, was a southern Saskatchewan farmer before becoming UGG’s president in Winnipeg in 1981. (Grainews file photo)

Former UGG, CWB chief Lorne Hehn, 79

Lorne Hehn, at his funeral last week, was remembered as the Saskatchewan farmer-turned-businessman who led the Canadian Wheat Board toward its next-to-last incarnation as a farmer-controlled marketing agency. Hehn, who died Sept. 16 at age 79, had farmed at Markinch, about 65 km north of Regina, and was involved in several farm organizations, becoming a […] Read more


CWB’s elevator under construction at St. Adolphe, Man. in May. The former Canadian Wheat Board has been putting up its own grain handling assets since its deregulation. (CWB.ca)

Farmers play last card in planned CWB class action

One claim remaining from an unsuccessful bid at a class action suit by four Prairie farmers, over payouts to producers from the former Canadian Wheat Board, will be the farmers’ basis for a new filing. The four farmers, whose previous proposed class action was dismissed with costs in April by the Supreme Court of Canada, […] Read more

green wheat and stormy sky

Wheat Growers still going strong

In recent issues of Grainews I’ve been using this space to write about some of the many farm organizations working on our behalf. I’ve covered levy-collecting organizations, general farm organizations and how soybeans are represented. Now, it’s time to look at some of the political organizations. Let’s start with the right — the Western Canadian […] Read more