(Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canola area expected to be lower in Monday’s StatsCan report

Later-seeded areas expected to add pulse, barley, durum acres

MarketsFarm — Market participants generally expect canola acreage will be revised downward in a second acreage estimate due out Monday from Statistics Canada. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about canola acres,” Ken Ball of P.I. International in Winnipeg said, noting acreage was “definitely lost” in central and northern Alberta due to wet spring conditions. In […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Little change seen in June’s crop supply/demand tables

MarketsFarm — Supply/demand estimates for Canada’s major crops saw little change in updated tables released Tuesday from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Acreage estimates from Statistics Canada are due out June 30, and should lead to more sizeable adjustments in subsequent reports. Canola ending stocks were left unchanged at 2.6 million tonnes for the current marketing […] Read more


Cigi staff evaluate wheat flour for use in oriental noodles. (Cigi photo)

‘New’ Cereals Canada names board, chair

The merged Cereals Canada/Cigi unit held its first annual meeting

Alberta farmer Todd Hames was elected Monday as the chair of the board for the recently reconstituted Cereals Canada, at its first-ever annual meeting. The ‘new’ Cereals Canada was created June 1 when it and the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) amalgamated after two years of discussions and the approval of their respective boards April […] Read more

CBOT July 2020 oats with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

Demand pushes up cash prices for oats

Cash oats uncoupled from Chicago futures values

MarketsFarm — While scarcity of oats on the Prairies has pushed up cash prices, there has been a drop in futures prices on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), two buyers said. “The weakness in the futures definitely has nothing to do with cash prices in the country,” said Scott Shiels of Grain Millers at […] Read more


A healthy wheat head at left and one with severe symptoms of fusarium head blight at right. (Keith Weller photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

Alberta deregulates fusarium

Crop disease comes off province's 'zero tolerance' list

Alberta is moving to keep fusarium in check by means other than the “zero tolerance” policy it has in effect on agricultural pests such as rats, rabies and clubroot. Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen announced a ministerial order Wednesday to remove Fusarium graminearum from the list of pests covered by the Pest and Nuisance Control Regulation, […] Read more

(File photo by Lorraine Stevenson)

Farmer deliveries well above average in April

MarketsFarm — Farmer deliveries of major grains into the Canadian commercial pipeline were up substantially in April, hitting their third-highest monthly total on record, according to updated data Statistics Canada released Monday. Farmers in April delivered 5.868 million tonnes of major grains, about a million tonnes above the monthly average during the 2019-20 crop-year-to-date, and […] Read more



(Dave Bedard photo)

Adjustments likely ahead for StatsCan’s early acreage estimates

Projections still in line with grain trade's expectations

MarketsFarm — The results of the first acreage estimates for 2020 from Statistics Canada come with an asterisk, as the COVID-19 pandemic halted data collection early. Canada’s actual seeded area is expected to see some shifts from the projections released Thursday. “As a result of the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, these estimates were produced […] Read more



Robbie Hale of Maverick Livestock stands in the family’s cocktail crop near Hines Creek, Alta.

Lessons learned growing cocktail crops

Despite an adverse start, cocktail crops have become a regular part of the Hale family’s crop rotation over the last six years

It is a long, long way from Dallas, Texas to Hines Creek, Alta. But the distance did not deter Curt Hale’s grandfather and father from making the move to Alberta’s Peace Country. The Hale family calls their operation Maverick Livestock, an apt name, with a maverick being an unorthodox or independent-minded person. The pioneering spirit […] Read more