Winnipeg | Reuters — Problems with Canada’s canola crop are driving up the oilseed’s price, cutting processors’ margins to their lowest levels in two years and threatening to boost the price of a key ingredient of salad dressings and potato chips. Frost and dry conditions on the Canadian Prairies have damaged the crop, which processors, […] Read more
Canada’s canola crop woes cut crusher profits to two-year low
Patchy canola points to smaller crop, harvest dilemma
Winnipeg | Reuters — Canola crops are rising across the Prairies like bad haircuts, reflecting multiple plantings and growth stages during a spring of frost and dry conditions. The most uneven canola crop in roughly a decade, according to provincial oilseed specialist Murray Hartman at Lacombe, Alta., points to lower yields in the world’s top […] Read more
TMX turning to cattle sales
Reuters — TMX Group, operator of Canada’s TSX stock exchange, hopes to rope a piece of the $90 billion North America cattle sector, and said Tuesday it would offer the continent’s first online sales platform of its kind. The expansion into a new business comes weeks after the TMX completed a six-month operations review, which […] Read more
Rain sprinkles Prairie canola fields, pastures
Winnipeg | Reuters — Light rains sprinkled Western Canada’s crops and pastures during the weekend, but amounts fell well short of what’s needed to remedy dry conditions that have stunted growth, analysts said Monday. Rains were scattered across the Prairies and similar light amounts are expected during the next two weeks, Commodity Weather Group said […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat adds two per cent gain to weather-related rally
Reuters — Chicago wheat futures climbed two per cent on Monday, extending last week’s rally on worries over potentially lower crop yields in the U.S. Plains. Wheat’s gains helped pull corn and soybeans close to the multi-week highs they touched on Friday. Weather concerns encouraged investors to cover short positions, said Mark Schultz, chief analyst […] Read more
Prairie farmers scramble for canola seed after frost
Winnipeg | Reuters –– Western Canadian farmers are scrambling to find scarce canola seed as they reseed crops snuffed out by frost and insects. Farmers in the region have until mid- to late June to plant ahead of insurance deadlines, but the later they sow canola, the higher the risk of damage later from heat […] Read more
Canada preparing shorter list of tariff targets in COOL fight
Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada is whittling down its list of U.S. products that it may hit with steep tariffs in retaliation against contentious meat-labeling laws, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. The Canadian government is likely to target beef, pork, California wines, mattresses, cherries and office furniture, possibly along with other goods, from […] Read more
Study of CWRS wheats counters diet book’s claims
Winnipeg | Reuters — The amount of protein in Canadian wheat has fluctuated little in 141 years, according to the most extensive study of its kind, countering claims that radical changes in the grain are making people sick. Dieters have shunned wheat, the key ingredient in bread, cookies and noodles, since the 2011 bestseller Wheat […] Read more
Light rain on way for Prairie crops, but ‘soaker’ needed
Winnipeg | Reuters –– Rain looks to splash parched farms on Western Canada’s Prairies over the next week as concerns mount that soil is too dry for canola to grow normally. Offsetting the concern somewhat is the region’s brisk pace of planting, which may wrap up by the weekend. The southern Prairies will be lucky […] Read more
PotashCorp evaluating SQM, ICL stakes
New York | Reuters –– PotashCorp CEO Jochen Tilk said Thursday he views the company’s stakes in fertilizer companies Sinofert and Arab Potash Co. as “strategic,” but continues to review whether to keep its shares in ICL and SQM. Tilk, speaking at a BMO investor conference in New York, said if Saskatoon-based PotashCorp could not […] Read more
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