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
Rumours of pretty strong Canadian beef exporter numbers for early 2019 weren’t an exaggeration as Statistics Canada’s official numbers puts January exports at a pedal to the metal pace. Confirming what the market heard anecdotally, StatsCan says beef exports to the Asia region in January were up 22 per cent year-over-year. Japan accounted for a… Read More
In presentations I frequently open up my talks discussing the agriculture challenges in Canada and the United States and then finish the opening by saying, “it could be worse, we could be in the UK.” It always gets a laugh, but for farmers in the UK, a possible crash exit from the EU is no… Read More
In her first trip to Saskatchewan, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau spent the day in Saskatoon discussing the issue of China blocking Canadian canola shipments with producers and industry stakeholders. Trade Diversification Minister, Jim Carr was also present during the two part meeting held late last week. Bibeau says they’re “ready to go” when… Read More
This just in: there’s lots of grain still out there. But you already knew this. With the last year of a trade war with China and another big harvest in 2018, the USDA reminded us on Friday, March 29th, that there’s still a lot of grain left out there. Corn was hit the hardest, as… Read More
There are oh-so-many factors at play in the oilseed complex, and the latest trade news (hi there, blocked canola shipments) does not bode well for the vegetable oil market. That said, soybean prices seemed to have encountered some price resistance at the mid-$9/bu price… could this be a bottom? Unfortunately, Chuck Penner, realist and founder… Read More