This week the Canola Council of Canada released its long term objectives for 2025. The Canola Council of Canada was bold in its plans to set the clear objectives for the industry. Is 22 million acres at a yield of 52 bushels/acre producing 26 million tonnes crazy? Is it too lofty? Is it out of… Read More
Category: Logistics
Every conference season, presentation after presentation reminds farmers of the cost of too-short crop rotations. Increased disease pressure, insect infestations and nutrient depletion of soil all weigh on yields in tight rotations. Agronomic decisions like these commonly play in to the decision on what to seed next on each field, but 2014 is shaping up… Read More
Change is a funny thing — difficult for some, painfully too slow for others. But if we look at a 10-year arc of, say, the grain markets, public policy, food trends and so on, that decade of change features individual events that string together to form a direction and momentum towards real change. 2013 featured… Read More
Viterra has reached an agreement to purchase certain assets of Lethbridge Inland Terminal Ltd. (LIT), including a high throughput grain elevator with a capacity of 42,000 metric tonnes, the company has announced. The deal is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and the approval by LIT shareholders; LIT’s board of directors are unanimously… Read More
Farmers are understandably frustrated by slow grain movements out of the Prairies this year, as a giant crop has western ports at a stand-still. The finger is often pointed at oil tankers hogging all the railway tonne-miles as a major part of slow grain movement off the Prairies, but as with any logistical problem, the… Read More
If the NOTORIOUS B.I.G was a market analyst he would describe the current situation in Western Canada as, “Mo crop, mo problems” (was that a reach???). The 2014 Western Canadian crop is very large, on farm storage is full, railways are jammed and ports are shipping as much as they can. Get More: If you… Read More
CWB has reached an agreement to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Mission Terminal, Les Élévateurs des Trois-Rivières, and Services Maritimes Laviolette from Upper Lakes Group Inc., the company states in a press release. The purchase positions CWB as the largest east-coast shipper of producer cars from Western Canada. The press release… Read More
A three-year deal still needs to be ratified by workers, but Canadian National (CN) railway reports today that a tentative deal has been struck with the Teamsters union and a rail strike has been averted. The threatened strike would have crippled an already severely taxed logistics system trying to move the huge 2013 crop. As… Read More
Farmers who banked on moving crop in September are running into road blocks left and right, even on the eve of November. A bumper crop across most crop kinds in all three Prairie Provinces is taxing Western Canada’s railway service and elevators are at or near capacity, even with huge piles of grain being stored… Read More
Brennan Turner recently asked farmers if they’d prefer extra bushels but lower prices, or sky high prices but a poor crop. Not surprisingly, farmers would prefer inventory, likely in part because Canadian farmers are quite comfortable with storing grain. Of course, the yields and volumes coming off fields this fall has left many farmers without… Read More