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Pulse weekly outlook: Market uncertainty all around

MarketsFarm — As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to swing markets up and down, typical issues and other external factors have amplified volatility in the pulse markets, according to one trader. David Newman, owner of Commodius Trading at North Saanich, B.C., explained that while the conflict in Eastern Europe is affecting markets everywhere, the usual […] Read more

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Ukraine sunseed area seen falling due to war

Lviv | Reuters — The area sown to sunflower in Ukraine is likely to fall to 4.81 million hectares (11.89 million acres) in 2022 from 6.66 million hectares in 2021 due to hostilities in many regions, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. Ukraine is the world’s largest sunflower seed grower and sunflower oil exporter. The […] Read more

The long-term forecast shows a wetter than normal spring for Ontario, but that could be a good thing for areas that were drier in 2021.

Growers should prepare for a wet spring

Storm systems with more cloud cover are tracking for the spring season

Spring 2022 is looking to be wet, says Brett Anderson, senior meteorologist, Canada weather specialist with Accuweather.  Grain Farmers of Ontario hosted Brett Anderson Feb. 25 for a webinar on climate trends for the 2022 growing season.  Why it matters: Understanding the forecast helps growers to understand what they are up against and to prepare […] Read more

Parts are already in short supply in Ukraine, and farmers are stockpiling and lending and borrowing amongst themselves. (Ihor Pavliuk photo)

Farming behind the lines in Ukraine

A Ukrainian agriculture journalist chronicles the challenges of sowing a crop during wartime

Ukrainians will farm their land, even in the face of war. In the Kherson area of southern Ukraine, where war rages and the city of Kherson is seen by the Russian invaders as strategic, a column set out on Monday. This was a column of tractors, under the flag of Ukraine. In it were farmers […] Read more


CBOT May 2022 wheat (candlesticks) with MGEX May 2022 spring wheat (yellow line) and K.C. May 2022 hard red wheat (orange line). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: May wheats limit-down as peace talks progress

Chicago corn, soybeans also lower

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures fell by their daily maximum on Wednesday as investors weighed whether talks between Ukraine and Russia could lead to a ceasefire in the three-week-long war, while rain forecast in the U.S. Plains eased concerns about parched crops. Corn ended lower as the talks between Moscow and Kyiv tempered […] Read more

File photo of a wheat field in northern Ukraine on July 14, 2016. (File photo: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)

Ukraine to start spring seeding in coming days, officials say

Lviv | Reuters — Ukraine plans to start sowing spring grains in the coming days and has enough grain in stocks to ensure the population has enough bread, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said Saturday. He said the country, which consumes eight million tonnes of wheat a year, had six million tonnes in stocks. Stocks […] Read more

Anti-tank ‘hedgehogs’ are seen in Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on March 9, 2022. Farmers are among those assembling the obstacles, set up to block roads against advancing armoured vehicles. (Yevhen Kotenko/Ukrinform/Abacapress.com via Reuters)

Bread and war: Farmers in the fight for Ukraine

Agriculture, being the most important industry in Ukraine, will play a large part in the war, a Ukrainian ag journalist writes

It is very difficult to explain what a person feels when they’re awakened at 5 a.m., when a rocket explodes near their house. That’s exactly what I experienced Feb. 24. The first thing I did was fill my car with gasoline. Then we bought a lot of products we thought we might need — medicines […] Read more



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Early USDA forecast points to record-large 2022 soybean crop

MarketsFarm — Farmers in the U.S. could grow a record-large soybean crop in 2022, according to early predictions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released at their annual Agricultural Outlook Forum (AOF) on Thursday. The government agency forecast soybean plantings in the country at 88 million acres, which would be up by 800,000 from the […] Read more