The first quarter of 2016 is in the books and it's becoming clear the last two years in the cattle market were likely outliers. "Unfortunately it's a reminder of what normal is. 2016 is nothing like 2014 and 2015 which were really bull markets that kept running through most of both years. That's not the... Read More
Category: Markets
Grain traders are questioning whether the USDA played an early April Fool's Day joke with its corn acreage projection in the department's March 31st acreage estimates. The Prospective Plantings Report included a projection of 93.6 million acres of corn in 2016, well beyond the trade's average expectation of just under 90 million. The soybean acreage... Read More
The Chinese government has agreed to postpone tighter dockage standards on Canadian canola. In February, China indicated a new standard allowing no more than 1 percent foreign material would be implemented on April 1. As Reuters first reported on Tuesday morning, China's import policy changes have now been postponed until September 1, 2016. The Chinese... Read More
The ratio of workers to retirees in Canada has historically been around 5 to 1, however it's trending toward 2 to 1 in the next few decades. The implications this will have for government and the labour market was the topic of Andrew Coyne's talk at the Growing the Agri-Workforce Summit, as ag industry people... Read More
Grains ended this week in the green, with soybeans leading the way at almost 1.5% higher for the week, and nearly 6% higher for the month of March. Canola is a close second, up over 1% for the week and over 5% so far in March. Wheat futures aren't far behind, after seeing a slight... Read More
Evidence is adding up to show Western Canada really did grow a big canola crop last year, despite the drought. A combination of ample supplies, expanded crush capacity and the lower Canadian dollar are driving a rapid pace in canola consumption this year, both domestically and through exports. Canadian canola crush is up 12 percent... Read More
A lot of focus in the market last week was on the wheat market as warm weather from Kiev to Kansas is pushing fall-seeded crops out of dormancy much earlier than usual. After last week’s best weekly gain for wheat since October, investors' focus will now turn to weather forecasts and the stocks and acreage... Read More
As we predicted in last week’s Friday column, grains started to pick up some steam in the second week of March, as the monthly WASDE report from the USDA was published. Global ending stocks were lowered a bit but the better catalyst for the move was the grains complex, which finally started to track oil’s... Read More
Grains started the month of March fairly hot, trying to rebound from its end of February, with more liquidity being added to the market and more bulls coming to the table on weather concerns. Nonetheless, given the size of the short position that managed money is holding on the futures board, there are some fundamentals... Read More
Satellites are helping depict a clearer picture (literally) of what Canadian farmers grow each year. Accurately predicting and measuring production of each crop grown in Canada has been an ongoing quest for the grain industry and government agencies since farming began in North America. Or at least since the start of the 20th century when... Read More