CME June 2023 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle extend setback to six-week low

Lean hogs follow cattle futures lower

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures tumbled to a six-week low on Wednesday, extending a setback from an all-time high last month as technical selling and long liquidation hit the market, brokers said. Losses in equities also pressured cattle futures amid concerns that weakness in the U.S. economy could depress demand […] Read more


File photo of a CFIA vehicle. (Dave Bedard photo)

Gene-edited crops clear CFIA’s regulatory bar

Agency guidance puts gene editing on level of conventional breeding

Plants gene-edited for efficient use of water or nutrients or to better withstand pests or drought now won’t have to clear the same regulatory hurdles in Canada as any crops that are modified for herbicide tolerance or include foreign genes. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced updated guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection […] Read more

ICE July 2023 canola with 20-day moving average and November 2023 canola (yellow open/high/low/close). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Expect canola to climb higher

Seeding reported underway in southern Alberta

MarketsFarm — As better-than-expected weather across the Canadian Prairies is very likely to spur on farmers to begin their spring seeding, the market is poised to push higher over the next couple of months, according to an analyst. “We have come down to the low end of the range,” said David Derwin, commodity futures advisor […] Read more


File photo of wheat south of Ethelton, Sask. on Aug. 1, 2022. (Dave Bedard photo)

CBOT weekly outlook: U.S. wheat futures correct higher

Traders' eyes remain on weather

MarketsFarm — After dropping to their weakest levels of the past two years, U.S. wheat futures were due for the corrective bounce that saw all three markets posted sharp gains on Wednesday. Soybeans and corn saw spillover support from the rally in wheat, with all three markets watching weather conditions through the growing season. U.S. […] Read more

Detail from the front of the CBOT building in Chicago. (Vito Palmisano/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. grains: Wheat rallies as tensions rise between Russia, Ukraine

Recent rains may not be enough to save U.S. wheat, traders say

Mexico City | Reuters — Chicago wheat rebounded from a 25-month low to close higher on Wednesday, edging up on fresh tensions between Russia and Ukraine that cast doubt on the future of the Black Sea grains corridor, analysts said. Corn also gained on the tensions. Soybeans, meanwhile, followed with a rally after touching a […] Read more


File photo of a canola field in northern France’s Normandy region. (Brasil2/iStock/Getty Images)

Rapeseed production expected down in EU

USDA attache sees more soy, sunflower

MarketsFarm — Rapeseed production in the European Union (EU) is expected to see a small decrease in the 2023-24 marketing year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) European Union attaché in Vienna. In a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report released Wednesday, the EU’s 2023-24 rapeseed crop is expected to total 19.3 million […] Read more

CME June 2023 live cattle with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. livestock: CME live cattle hit five-week low

Technical selling, economic worries add pressure; June hogs up

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures dropped to their lowest level in more than five weeks on Tuesday as technical selling and concerns about the U.S. economy weighed on prices, analysts said. Economic worries increased after the failure over the weekend of First Republic Bank. Wall Street stock indexes sagged ahead […] Read more


(FatCamera/iStock/Getty Images)

Beekeepers call to reopen cross-border package bee trade

Ten years after the last risk assessment, some say it’s time to re-evaluate

Canadian beekeepers are calling for the federal government to reopen the border to the importation of U.S. package honeybees. Witnesses at a meeting of the House of Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food last Wednesday presented recommendations for what the government could do to resolve issues of honeybee health decline and bee mortality. The […] Read more

Trucks wait for crossing into Poland at the Rava-Ruska border checkpoint in Ukraine’s Lviv region on April 17, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Roman Baluk)

EU sets Ukraine grain import restrictions in five countries until June 5

Supports pledged for farmers in those countries

Brussels | Reuters — The European Commission said on Tuesday it set restrictions until June 5 on imports of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed to ease the excess supply of these grains in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU executive arm said that during that period, Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and […] Read more