Real Agriculture
Corn drives the agriculture commodity complex which provides great coffee shop and water cooler fodder. Demand for corn has been strong and supplies have been tight which has made the market strong. One of the scenarios livestock producers were hoping for was for the 2011 crop to produce strong yields and a cushion in the [...]
This week the USDA report really smacked the commodity market into a downward spiral on Wednesday. Most people said that the negative reaction was an over reaction but still it does wake some farmers up to the potential downward snap that this market can take. As Jon Driedger, FarmLiunk Marketing discusses below, this is great [...]
In the last few years, lentil acres in Canada were on the rise. Farmers across the country planted just over 2.5 million acres of the crop last year. That being said, the expectation this year is that lentil acres will be down about 25% according to some analysts. Apparently, as good as the price for [...]
Marketing your crop through the cash market is not the only tool for farmers to use. A growing group of farmers are using the derivative market with futures and options to manage the volatile risk of commodities. With the increase in price volatility producers have to reach out to use as much of the toolbox [...]
There has been quite a bit of commentary in the media recently from certain farm groups like the NFU and R-Calf regarding the need to eliminate or more strictly regulate speculators in the market. Interest in commodities has greatly increased in recent years which has increased the volume of speculators trading in corn, beef and [...]
With the volatility in the marketplace, producers need to be actively involved in managing risk. There is a multitude of tools available to producers. Some are simple and some are more complex. One of the more useful tools that is maybe a little more challenging for producers to wrap their heads around is options. Using [...]
Much of the attention is being paid to corn, soybean and lentil pricing this winter. The forgotten sister has been wheat. In many cases wheat is not as sexy or doesn’t get people as crazy with market anticipation. The fact is that wheat is still an incredibly important component of Western Canadian rotations. Not just [...]
We have covered the issue of market volatility often on RealAgriculture.com. Even with the knowledge that volatility is a new-normal, some farmers still try and aggressively sell at the top of the market to derive the highest returns possible. At the Southwest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, I spoke with Victor Aideyan, HISGRAIN Commodities Inc. about [...]
