In early December, the Saskatchewan River was at its second lowest level in the past 23 years.   Photo: Alex McCuaig

Alberta expands livestock drought recovery supports

Only a narrow band of the province remains exempt from the aid program

The 2023 Canada-Alberta Drought Livestock Assistance initiative, funded through the AgriRecovery framework by the federal and provincial governments, offers payments of up to $150 per head to livestock producers who have 15 or more animals per type of livestock, and have altered usual grazing practices for more than 21 days due to drought.



Photo: Thinkstock

Sask. canola, flax groups vote to merge

SaskCanola and SaskFlax have been sharing offices, admin for about a year

Producer support for the merge of SaskCanola and SaskFlax was "overwhelming," the groups said in a Jan. 10 news release. The organizations held a joint annual general meeting to share results of member feedback before taking the issue to a vote. The vote passed with "widespread approval," the release said.




ICE November 2023 canola with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages. (Barchart)

ICE weekly outlook: Canola ‘due for a bounce’

Weather co-operating, mostly, for Prairie harvesting

MarketsFarm — A month-long decline of ICE Futures canola prices, which saw the oilseed lose $110 per tonne, came to an end and was followed by a bounce-back. While the price of the November canola contract still declined by $10/tonne to $726.10 during the week ended Wednesday, it hit its lowest price since the end […] Read more


Global sea surface temperature anomalies in degrees Celsius for the week centred on Aug. 30, 2023. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

Rest of September to be warmer than normal for Prairies

Southern Prairies to remain drier than normal

MarketsFarm — As summer turns to autumn on the Canadian Prairies, the weather outlook for the rest of September is for temperatures to be warmer than normal, according to Scott Kehler, chief scientist for Weatherlogics. One of the factors in those forthcoming temperatures is the El Niño that has been developing over the last several […] Read more

Chickpea curry. (Modesigns58/iStock/Getty Images)

Pulse weekly outlook: Chickpea market neither bullish nor bearish

Market players awaiting harvest

MarketsFarm — Hot and dry growing conditions earlier in the growing season cut into Canada’s chickpea yields in 2023-24, but quality should be good if the weather co-operates through the harvest. Canadian farmers planted 315,600 acres of chickpeas in 2023, which was well above the 233,800 acres seeded the previous year, according to Statistics Canada […] Read more