By Terry Daynard. This blog post first appeared on Terry’s blog, here. You can contact Terry via Twitter at @TerryDaynard. The recent decision by the Government of Ontario to critically restrict usage of neonicotinoid seed treatments for corn and soybean growers, despite limited scientific support, has been a real eye opener for Ontario farmers. This… Read More
Category: Opinion
I hope you have time to take a look around at the agricultural landscape this holiday weekend, and celebrate Food Day Canada as we’ve known it over the past decade or so. Because in another 12 months, our nation’s agri-food culture could feel much different. Food Day Canada is described by its founder, culinary pioneer… Read More
Grain trade this week was quite choppy as the usual suspects of weather, currency swings, and #harvest15 firing up being exacerbated by the closing of the month of July (meaning funds and other speculators may have looked to clean up their books a bit). Monday might’ve been the worst as front-month contracts for soybeans and… Read More
It’s tough to talk about the cattle markets and not focus solely on the demand side which, if we’re being honest, has been nothing short of impressive. But price is a function of two components — supply being the balance to demand. While Canada’s beef herd continues to contract, ranchers in the United States have… Read More
The grain markets continued to push lower this week as favourable weather and temperatures and a strong U.S. dollar did not help any bullish players. Wheat has had nine straight sessions of going lower, dropping over 7.5 per cent in last week, while corn had its worst week in the past year, down almost seven… Read More
What makes a fair marketplace? Whether you are here on the farm or catching a city cab, marketplace dynamics are a hot topic these days. Taxi drivers in Toronto are at their wits end as the popular ride-sharing site UberX is sucking up business. Unlike two taxi companies competing for business, UberX and cab companies… Read More
To its peril, Canada’s agri-food industry – and indeed, all of Canada — has chugged along for more than a century without a comprehensive agri-food strategy. You’d think whoever is running Ottawa would have made it a priority, given we are active internationally exporting food and so dependent on imports. Consider the consequences if the… Read More
Canadian farmers who own dairy or poultry quota may not have to live with the stress that comes from marketing a product on a volatile open market, but their stress comes in another form: the worry that the federal government will pull the rug (or one of the three pillars) out from under the regulatory… Read More
Grain prices were all higher this week and ended with a WASDE report on Friday that the market read as bullish, even though the numbers didn’t fully imply that. Does the market just not believe the numbers, or perhaps it feels more cuts are on the way? Either way, weather is creating fairly volatile trading… Read More
June 30 was a big day in 1867: the eve before the birth of this great nation. This year, nearly 150 years later, it marked the end of the trading month, the end of the trading quarter, the final day for Greece to accept new financial austerity measures or make a €1.6 Billion loan payment (they did… Read More