Grain prices again found significant gains this past week as the complex continued to price in weather and corresponding production risks, especially in the U.S. Midwest. The weekly performance was augmented by a significant rally on Friday that saw corn prices jump 14 cents/bushel and Chicago wheat climbing 19 cents! With the forecast for the… Read More
By Sean Mitchell and Dr. Alfons Weersink As wet planting conditions persist across Ontario, many growers have switching on their mind: should they switch to shorter-season corn hybrids or even leave corn in the bag and plant soybeans? From an economic perspective, the best choice is likely to switch to shorter-season corn with lower heat… Read More
The Canadian beef market is enjoying a record-setting export pace for the first three months of 2019. Last week’s announcement of Japan accepting beef from over-thirty-months of age cattle is a real bonus to an already great bull run. Fawn Jackson, senior manager of government and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, says that… Read More
In somewhat of a landslide victory, Narendra Modi has secured another five year term as the Prime Minister of India. As one of the milestones influencing the country’s strategy on pulse crop import tariffs, the federal election is big news for the international agriculture community. Now that it’s over, should Canadian pulse growers expect a… Read More
It’s a weather market this week, according to Wendy White, manager of grain marketing for Viterra’s central region, and there has been a lot of volatility. But, that can be a good thing, if you know how to market your grain. “You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard corn planting (in the… Read More
As many western Canadian producers are passed the halfway point of seeding, American Midwestern farmers are still barely scratching dirt thanks to continuous rains. Grain markets have started to acknowledge some of this latter risk, in addition to the benefit of a second round of trade war aid from President Trump. Looking more continental, the… Read More
The May long weekend is the official kick off to the summer barbecue season, but the wet, cool weather trend doesn’t look like it’s going to let up for much of the country. Will this deter beef consumption? Will African swine fever’s impact on the hog markets boost beef retail sales through competitive pricing? Not… Read More
Grain markets ended the week deep in the red as complex dealt with a myriad off bearish factors, capped off by the May 2019 WASDE report from the USDA. Said WASDE report, U.S.-China trade war talks breaking off, and weak U.S. grain export sales was just too much to offset any bullish dynamic from Mother… Read More
With all that’s going on with China and U.S. relations, you can be forgiven for perhaps not noticing there was a USDA report on Friday, May 10. To discuss what impact the report had, RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney is joined by Matthew Pot, of Grain Perspectives, and although the report is perhaps less of… Read More
Somehow it’s already May, and we’re heading into a new growing season. Chuck Penner, of Leftfield Commodity Research, joins RealAgriculture’s Lyndsey Smith to talk about what trends are going on in the markets. Penner explains there are some rather intriguing shifts. “Some of the things that have really been on fire, some of smaller crops… Read More
Grain market continue to pull back in the last full week of trading in April as bearish demand and supply issues are keeping the bears in control. For the week, there was some negative positioning of sorts as the bears pushed contracts from the May to the July 2019 contracts on the futures boards. One… Read More
Grain prices finished a shortened trading week mostly in the red as the complex continues to ignore some negative weather forecasts on the basis that there’s amply grain stocks and that a crop today can get planted in a very short timeframe. Put another way, the bulls took a breather heading into Easter, with bears… Read More
Spring has sprung in the cattle industry as ranchers focus on calving and feedyards spread manure. There are many moving parts right now for the beef industry including trade deals, consumer demand, and any ripple impacts on the protein complex due to African swine fever. On Thursday the USDA released its Cattle on Feed report… Read More
Grain markets were served up another monthly instalment of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) this past week by the USDA, but if you didn’t know that, you might’ve missed it. The report came out as mostly expected, which was bearish, and since there weren’t too major surprises in this WASDE report, I’ve… Read More
To start the new month, grain markets are mostly able to retain their gains for the week, albeit Friday, April 5th was a mostly down day for the complex. For the week, Minneapolis hard red spring wheat was the biggest loser while oats led the complex in gains (what do oats know, though?) For HRS… Read More