A truck bears the logo of the Fortune brand, used by Cofco’s China Agri subsidiary to market rice and flour. (Cofco.com)

China shipping wheat flour to Canada

Chinese state-owned agrifood firm Cofco says it has scored its first-ever international sale of wheat flour — into the Canadian market. Cofco, which said in June it plans to open a Canadian grain trading office in Winnipeg, recently announced it had loaded a container ship at the northeastern port of Dalian on Nov. 17 with […] Read more




(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

U.S. grains: Wheat, corn sag on ample supplies

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat and corn futures fell on Wednesday, pressured by plentiful world feedgrain supplies and profit-taking following light rallies a day earlier, traders said. Soybean futures ended modestly higher after a choppy session, supported by fresh export demand for U.S. soy and worries about South American crop weather. Chicago Board of […] Read more


Producers can feed test standing crops by grabbing 20 to 25 samples, says Bart Lardner.

Cut cereal crops later, feed more cows

Support for cutting barley, oat crops at the hard-dough stage grows

The recommendation to cut barley crops at the early-dough stage and oat crops at the late-milk stage for silage has by default been the standing recommendation for stage of maturity to cut these cereals for greenfeed and swath grazing as well. Findings by a University of Saskatchewan team of researchers with the animal science and […] Read more

Burrs on Cow

Beating back burdock

Invasive weed species can affect both pasture and profit

Burdock is an invasive plant that causes problems for livestock and crops, and is generally considered a noxious weed. The tall burdock plant, a native of Eurasia, is a biennial, which means it lives for two growing seasons. The first year, it merely grows leaves and accumulates food reserves in its roots, like a carrot. […] Read more


(Jack Dykinga photo courtesy ARS/USDA)

U.S. patent agency to weigh rival claims on CRISPR

Reuters — The U.S. patent agency on Tuesday will hear arguments in a heated dispute over who was first to invent a revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. Hundreds of millions of dollars may be at stake, as the technology promises commercial applications in treating genetic diseases, engineering crops, and other areas. CRISPR works as […] Read more

(Lentils.ca)

StatsCan lentil numbers confirm trade suspicions

CNS Canada — New Statistics Canada data has confirmed what traders already assumed: Lentil supplies aren’t lacking, despite excess moisture this year. Prices for the pulse had been trending lower with those suspicions, and buyers are looking to India for indications on where to move in the New Year. StatsCan estimates released Tuesday say farmers […] Read more


A canola field in northwestern Saskatchewan on Oct. 5, 2016 after the area was blanketed by wet snow.  (Lisa Guenther photo)

Focus on quality, not quantity following StatsCan report

CNS Canada –– This year’s Canadian wheat production was up considerably from last year, according to updated estimates from Statistics Canada — but the quality of that crop remains questionable. All-wheat production (spring, winter and durum wheat combined) was pegged at 31.7 million tonnes in 2016-17, which compares with 27.6 million in 2015-16. Of that […] Read more

Soil moisture (top five cm of soil) on Prairies for November 2016, measured as difference from average. (AAFC Drought Watch map)

Winter wonderland piles on saturated eastern Prairies

CNS Canada — While a wave of snow slowly pummels parts of Saskatchewan and much of Manitoba, one soil moisture expert says water is still trickling through the soil into natural water channels. According to Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Drought Watch program in Regina, this is a good thing, as […] Read more