Canola seed, oil and meal. (Photo courtesy Canola Council of Canada)

Canada’s canola crush down slightly in August

MarketsFarm — As often has been the case, the canola crush in Canada dipped from July to August, according to Statistics Canada. The federal agency issued its monthly crush numbers on Thursday with 829,778 tonnes of canola crushed in August, down 2.89 per cent from July’s crush. However, August’s crush was the second most so […] Read more

Burrows MLA Diljeet Brar, shown here outside Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks General Hospital in a campaign video screengrab, is the Manitoba NDP’s new critic for agriculture. (Facebook)

Ag extension staffer named Manitoba NDP ag critic

A former Manitoba provincial ag extension co-ordinator will be the new critic for agriculture on the opposition New Democrats’ bench. Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew on Friday announced a new shadow cabinet, appointing Diljeet Brar as his critic for agriculture and for sport, culture and heritage. Brar, a rookie MLA elected Sept. 10 in the […] Read more



CBOT December 2019 corn, with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, soybean futures ease

Chicago | Reuters –– Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn and soybean futures closed lower on Friday, as weather forecasts showed fewer yield risks to Midwest crops ahead of harvesting, as traders jockeyed for positioning ahead of a U.S. grain stocks report slated for Monday, traders said. Meanwhile, CBOT wheat futures extended a technical bounce […] Read more



CBOT November 2019 soybeans with Bollinger (20,2) bands, a gauge of market volatility. (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soy futures end near unchanged

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures finished near unchanged on Thursday after initially rising on hopes for further Chinese purchases, traders said. China, the world’s largest soybean importer, will buy about six million tonnes of soy from the United States before trade talks in early October, said a chief analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence […] Read more


Barley south of Ethelton, Sask. in early August 2017. (File photo by Dave Bedard)

Feed weekly outlook: Barley’s slide slows as harvest drags

MarketsFarm — The slide in western Canadian feed grain prices over the past few months shows signs of slowing, as concerns over harvest delays supplant earlier concerns over large crops and quality downgrades. “The weather over the next week or so doesn’t look that great,” Allen Pirness of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge said Thursday. […] Read more

A 12-week global test of the McDonald’s P.L.T. starts Sept. 30, 2019 in 28 southwestern Ontario stores. (CNW Group/McDonald’s Canada)

Ontario to host global test for McDonald’s pulseburger

The biggest quick-service dining chain on the planet is set to use southwestern Ontario as the global test market for its first foray into Beyond Meat. McDonald’s announced Thursday it will run a 12-week test for a plant-based burger it calls the “P.L.T.” exclusively at 28 restaurants in the region starting Monday. “This test allows […] Read more


Spring wheat futures rally on North American weather woes

Spring wheat futures rally on North American weather woes

MarketsFarm — Weather-related quality issues with North American spring wheat crops saw Minneapolis spring wheat futures rally sharply over the past three weeks, with more room to the upside as concerns mount over the state of the crop. The December contract hit a multi-year low of $4.865 per bushel at the beginning of September, but […] Read more

ICE January 2020 canola (candlesticks) and CBOT January 2020 soybeans (yellow line). (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola values stay rangebound

MarketsFarm — Canola prices have been characterized as “firm one day and softer the next,” this week, remaining largely rangebound in light trading activity. “It’s hard to tell why, but canola oscillates between stronger than soybeans and then weaker,” said Ken Ball of P.I. Financial in Winnipeg. “It’s just spreaders playing back and forth with […] Read more