Featured – Kevin Hursh

With a potential labour disruption on both major railways starting August 22, a cloud has been cast over fall grain deliveries. Hopefully, a strike or lockout does not occur on August 22, but at this point it doesn’t look promising. Both sides in the dispute are reported to be far apart. Grain buyers are already […]

If you ask grain farmers about their biggest input costs, they are likely to talk about equipment purchases, fertilizer prices or the cost of various crop protection products. One huge cost, grain freight rates are seldom top of mind because producers pay indirectly. Grain buyers pay the huge cost of grain movement by rail and […]

The new crop year begins this Thursday, August 1. The 2024-25 crop year is expected to see significant price declines for most crops. In fact, wheat and flax are the only crops where prices are forecast to be a bit better. The Market Analysis Group within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada issues regular outlooks for the […]

An AgTech Breakfast was held Wednesday morning at Ag in Motion to profile a number of startup companies, and what they can provide for farmers. A start-up company called Pathoscan can test for crop disease in the field, providing immediate immediate answers. This is unlike labs where getting results takes days. In a similar vain, […]

There weren’t a lot of surprises in yesterday’s seeded acreage report from Statistics Canada.  The seeded acreages for most crops were not too far from grain trade expectations. One exception may have been barley, down nearly 13 per cent as compared to last year. The drop was greatest in Saskatchewan – down 17.5 per cent. […]

The price premium for durum over spring wheat is narrowing. That’s one of the takeaways from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s June outlook report for principal field crops. Ag Canada has lowered its durum price forecast for the current crop year. The May forecast had the average price of durum at $450 a tonne for the […]

Statistics Canada has released a balance sheet for the agricultural sector of the country. The report details assets, liabilities and equity for agriculture in each province. Stats Canada says the value of equity in Canada’s farm sector totalled nearly $785 billion as of December 31, 2023. This is up $55 billion or 7.6 per cent […]

Statistics Canada has released a blizzard of farm income and expense statistics for 2022, 2023 and the first part of this year. In both 2022 and 2023, Alberta had higher farm cash receipts than Saskatchewan. However, Saskatchewan led all the provinces by a wide margin when it comes to net farm income. Realized net income […]

Precipitation levels are on an upswing across most of the Prairie region. Even without counting the rain the past couple days, precipitation maps are showing an improvement in the dry conditions that have hurt crop and forage yields in many regions in recent years. For the past five years, total precipitation has been only 60 […]

With strong cattle prices, the Livestock Price Insurance Program is offering the highest floor prices in the program’s history. Cow-calf producers can lock in a profitable floor price for the calves that will be hitting the ground this spring.  With calf prices strong and the market looking favorable, some producers may wonder why they should […]