Live cattle futures have been slowly chipping way at the drastic declines experienced earlier this year due to COVID-19. In the last 30 days, the June cattle future has climbed $15.45 to just under $100. At its lowest point, in early April, the June future was $76.60. With U.S. cash trading between $115 and $120… Read More
Grain markets saw a bit of a sell-off on the last Friday of May with mostly lower as the traders booked profits before the end of the month amidst growing uncertainty in U.S.-China trade relations. This week, China moved with a heavy hand to take full control of Hong Kong, the city-state given up by… Read More
There is no shortage of issues to discuss in the ag commodity complex, and our latest edition of RealAg LIVE! is here to cover the latest in market news, and answer everything you’re wondering regarding the futures. On this Thursday edition of RealAg LIVE!, host Shaun Haney is joined by Zaner Ag Hedge’s Chief Ag… Read More
The B.C. Supreme Court released its decision regarding the issue of double criminality in the extradition case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on Wednesday. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes ruled the trial should proceed, saying the crime Meng is accused of by U.S. prosecutors would also be a crime in Canada. Farmers in Canada have… Read More
Durum wheat has historically been a profitable crop, for drier parts of the country and especially for farmers in the Palliser Triangle. Farmers are moving into durum cropping and the projected tonnage may increase to as high as six million tonnes, contrary to the projected drop in tonnage according to Statistics Canada. Neil Townsend, Senior… Read More
Grain markets headed into the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend with a bit of a limp as traders watched technicals for direction amidst some benign crop conditions and a firmer U.S. Dollar. Wheat prices on Friday pared their gains made over three straight positive sessions, despite a smaller crop in Kansas expected and some short-covering… Read More
Fresh off of one of the biggest barbecue weekends of the year in Canada and headed into another in the United States, the cattle market is paying close attention to retail sales and the effect on prices throughout the supply chain. At the same time, processing capacity has started to return following slowdowns and shutdowns… Read More
Exports are so important to the Canadian beef industry, and early 2020 was shaping up to be a record year for global demand. Then, COVID-19 happened. Statistics Canada recently released the January to March numbers for Canadian beef exports, and as Brenna Grant, manager of research services for CanFax, explains, there is evidence of COVID-19… Read More
It has been a real struggle for meat packers to hold or build slaughter capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Not too long ago analysts thought slaughter levels would not increase to 80% of capacity until mid summer but in both Canada and the U.S., the weekly slaughter is climbing back faster than first thought. The… Read More
Which crop has the biggest price upside? Where will canola acres land? Do I really need to know my cost of production? Brian Voth, transplanted Manitoban and president of IntelliFarm Inc., is our latest RealAg LIVE! guest, and he fielded all sorts of questions. (Check out the full video/discussion below) Let’s start with canola! And… Read More
Grain markets were mixed this week as we got the first look at how the USDA is thinking about the 2020/21 crop year in terms of supply and demand, just as demand peeks its head out from underneath the COVID-19 covers. Through the middle of May, soybean and corn prices were helped by more optimism… Read More
In unpacking the United States Department of Agriculture’s perspective on the upcoming marketing year for U.S. stocks, it looks like nothing more than a goal post at the point in the marketing year with demand just as ambiguous. The USDA’s latest WASDE report pegs new crop corn ending stocks at 3.318 billion which was below… Read More
Just how important is the European Union canola (rapeseed) market? According to LeftField Commodity Research, the region had more than doubled its year-over-year canola imports up to mid-March of this year, offsetting nearly half of the Canadian tonnage that would have been sold to China. That’s a significant increase, says Jonathan Driedger with LeftField, driven… Read More
Grain markets were mixed over the first full week of trading as investor jockeyed positions on frost fears, a fast planting pace, and newly-minted trade tensions between the U.S. and China. For the most part though, freezing temperatures were forecasted to hit everything north of central Illinois and that propelled the market into positive territory… Read More
Since the fall of 2019, beef packer profits have received major attention by ranchers and feedyards. Much of the discussion started after the packing plant fire in Kansas, but has exploded recently due to the results of the COVID-19 pandemic. Packers have struggled to stay online due to COVID-19 cases related to the plant, and… Read More