2021 won’t be forgotten anytime soon in the cattle world. The January 1, 2022, Cattle on Feed report from CanFax showed a 12 per cent increase in the number of cattle on feed from a year ago, with placements down a bit. As Anne Wasko, of the Gateway Livestock Exchange, explains in our latest Beef… Read More
Corn imports into Western Canada from the U.S. have risen dramatically following the 2021 drought, but cattle feeders in Alberta say unpredictable shipments are not keeping up with demand. In some cases, feedlots say they are scraping together the last of their feed supplies, and are banking on delayed trains still arriving in time to… Read More
South Korea has announced it will end its almost month-long ban on buying Canadian beef. The ban lasted almost one month, after an atypical case of BSE was reported in a beef cow on an Alberta farm Dec. 17, 2021. South Korea closed its doors to Canadian beef on Dec. 21. This morning, South Korea… Read More
It’s widely speculated that the Bank of Canada is set to increase its interest rate beginning later this month, and likely will do so more than a few times over the course of 2022. While you can argue the validity of using interest rates to temper inflation, there’s no doubt that Canada — and the world… Read More
One of the conversations in the first few weeks of the new year often ask the question “What should I be paying attention to?” Farm Credit Canada (FCC) has released its list of the top 5 economic trends for Canadian agriculture and food to watch in 2022. J.P. Gervais, chief economist at FCC, joined RealAg… Read More
There might be some assumptions about what the impact of the ongoing pandemic has been on the global middle class and there might also be the underlying realities that explain what’s going on. COVID changed everything in supply and production chains and really pointed out the precarious nature of those systems, says Carlo Dade, director… Read More
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says domestic corn supplies might be slightly larger than what the trade thought, but there were no major surprises in the January World Agricultural Supply/Demand Estimates (WASDE) published on Wednesday. Corn ending stocks rose by 47 million bushels from the USDA’s December report to 1.54 million bushels, near the top… Read More
Plans have been unveiled for another soybean crush plant in the Northern Plains. CGB Enterprises and Minnesota Soybean Processors say they have formed a joint venture to build a soybean processing plant near Casselton, North Dakota — 15 miles west of Fargo and approximately 150 miles south of the Canada-U.S. border crossing at Emerson, Man…. Read More
When it comes to talking about markets, we focus on the uncertainties; things we don’t know. However, sometimes we need to focus on what we do know. Peter Rohde, of IHS Markit, says what we do know right now is that we need to stay focused on the U.S. balance sheet, as it continues to… Read More
We don’t have to say it twice: it’s been a frustrating year for many involved in the cattle community. As Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange explains in our latest Beef Market Update, the impacts of the 2021 drought won’t easily be forgotten, and and it’s not something that’s just going to go away…. Read More
It’s a surprise to only a few at this point to hear we’re currently at a 20-year high in the fertilizer markets. The reasoning comes from a combination of things, but as Ryan Furtas, market analyst with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry explains, a hike in crop prices, an increase of feedstock costs, and as we… Read More
The economic state of affairs for Canada right now is an interesting mix of rising prices, decreasing unemployment, and strong demand for export goods. There are both positive and negative factors at play in Canada’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Craig Klemmer, principal economist at Farm Credit Canada says that we’re seeing different levels of… Read More
Not that this anecdote means anything to the markets, but Canadian farmers grew more corn than canola in 2021, thanks to record corn yields in Ontario and severe drought on the Prairies. Canola production for 2021 was pegged at 12.6 million tonnes, with corn coming in at 14.0 million tonnes, in Statistics Canada’s final crop… Read More
In this week’s Beef Market Update, Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange breaks down the beef markets, including what’s going on in the U.S., whether or not their tides have permanently turned for choice cut-outs and choice select prices, and how western Canadian numbers are faring in comparison. The U.S. didn’t take a lot… Read More
Turn on Bloomberg, CNBC, or Fox News and just about every mainstream news outlet is talking about inflation. But how worried should farmers or ranchers be about inflation? In some ways, farmers or ranchers may be set up to benefit from inflation, says Shawn Hass of RBC Dominion Securities, in this interview with Shaun Haney… Read More