Market Prospects is Back on CTV's Farmgate

source: Farm and Food Report

Market Prospects marks its 20th anniversary this winter with a 16-week run on CTV’s weekly Farmgate show.

The series continues its tradition of inviting experts from Saskatchewan and further afield to provide leading edge analysis on the market situation and outlook for major prairie crops and livestock. It also examines a variety of related agricultural production and trade issues.

Market Prospects kicked off in December 2004 with two livestock shows. Farmgate host Bob Simpson interviewed Michel Tremblay, SAFRR Provincial Forage Crop Specialist, on the feed situation and Brad Wildeman of Pound-Maker Agventures in Lanigan on current issues in the prairie beef sector. As with most Market Prospects shows, the audio and video of these interviews and the text version of the questions can be accessed following the original broadcast at http://marketprospects.usask.ca/.

The series resumed in January with SAFFR's own grain research economist, Glenn Payne, speaking on world grain and oilseed supplies and market conditions. In the next show, Dr. Andrew Schmitz of the University of Florida examined the nature of U.S. trade actions (and the resulting countervail duties). Dr. Schmitz is an internationally recognized agricultural economist who still farms in his home province of Saskatchewan.

The annual appearance of Dr. Keith Collins, Chief Economist of the United States Department of Agriculture, is considered a highlight of the Market Prospects series. Dr. Collins, who is known to give candid interviews, provides the U.S. perspective on agricultural trade and markets in two interviews. On February 5, he offers the U.S. view on the wheat and oilseed outlook.

On February 12, Dave Walker of Tisdale's Walker Seeds addresses the market situation and outlook for peas, lentils and chickpeas. Steve Gadient of Winnipeg's Humboldt Seeds continues the emphasis on specialty crops on February 19, speaking on mustard, canary seed and spices. Further topic and speaker information can be found on the web site.

One might think that, after 20 years of production, the annual series might be growing old and a bit tired. However, the show has re-invented itself several times over the years to remain relevant and accessible. It has gone from a one-day satellite show with live audiences in a small number of Saskatchewan centres, to a stand-alone special series on network television, to its current placement as a 10-minute segment on Farmgate.

More than 75,000 viewers watch the show each week in the province, and it is also available across Canada on satellite television. The adoption of technology such as the internet site and the production of DVDs has further expanded the availability of the information.

Central to the Market Prospects programming over the years has been the objective of informing farmers about changing production and market conditions that will influence production levels and prices of the major Saskatchewan crops in the coming year. The goal has been to deliver timely commodity market and outlook information prior to spring planting.

Richard Wharton is SAFRR's Production Economics Specialist. "This kind of information is very critical," he says. "With margins being very thin, producers need to focus on what the market demands. Traditionally, agricultural producers have put more emphasis on production than marketing, which tends to be left to specialized organizations. Yet, it is central to what producers do. They need to be aware of market fluctuation, especially now, as they prepare for a new season of activities. They must familiarize themselves with developments on issues of price, cash flow and profitability. The Market Prospect interviews allow them to do just that."

In recent years, an expanded educational mandate has been adopted for the series. A number of shows each year look at a wider range of production, market and trade issues that affect prairie farmers. This year, the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development in Saskatchewan (CARDS) Program (funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) has provided financial support for a series of eight interviews within the Market Prospects 2005 programming focussing on agricultural trade. The series, which explores BSE, Canada/U.S. trade, product traceability and the WTO, is titled Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities for Prairie Agriculture.

Market Prospects 2005 is co-ordinated by the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Saskatchewan, in co-operation with SAFRR and CTV. A broad base of financial support comes from CARDS, the Agriculture Institute of Management in Saskatchewan (AIMS), the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, and the Cyril Capling Trust Fund of the College of Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan.

Market Prospects continues on Farmgate on Saturdays until April 16. There is something for all prairie farmers and anyone else interested in agriculture in these 16 themed interviews.

For more information, contact:
Richard Wharton
Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization
Agriculture Knowledge Centre
1-866-457-2377

Winter Cereals Canada Looks at Favourable Future

source: Farm and Food Report

When winter cereal producers meet in Saskatoon on February 14, there will certainly be talk of the drop in Saskatchewan acres of winter wheat, from close to 230,000 acres in 2003 to little more than 147,000 acres last year because of the weather.

But that does not give an accurate picture of how the industry is doing, according to Executive Manager of Winter Cereals Canada, Bob Linnell.

“Winter wheat production has been around 700,000 acres, spread across three prairie provinces; and, on the whole over the last six years or so, there has been a steady increase of 10 to 18 per cent in acreage. We see that as a positive sign. We consistently get between 60 and 100 growers at the meeting. That may not seem like a lot, but they are the ones looking for new avenues to further develop their farm.”

According to Linnell, winter wheat producers tend to have higher acreages these days, so they tend to look at spreading out their workload. Winter wheat allows them to do that.

“They are able to seed in the fall, roughly at the time they are starting to harvest their spring seeded crops. The next year, the winter wheat is harvested actually about a month ahead of any spring-seeded crop. They have a chance to do two things. They can get a crop off and spend more time adequately harvesting their fall-seeded crops that year. It also has an effect on bin storage. If you get winter wheat in a bin a month ahead of your spring seeded harvested crop, you can often empty it out and re-use that bin. In other words, you are doing two turns on that individual bin. It beats the market, as well.”

This year, Winter Cereals Canada has invited speakers who can help growers achieve higher returns on their investment and decrease input costs.

“Because the fertilizer is applied sometime later in the springtime — after the cereal is already growing the fall before — there have always been questions about how to properly apply the fertilizer that is going into the ground,” Linnell says. “Dr. Byron Irvine of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Brandon will talk about fertilizing winter wheat for maximum production — and Manitoba has been somewhat more successful in producing higher yields than we have, so he’ll share some of his secrets.”

As far as markets go, there may be a number of options for winter wheat with hog and cattle feeders once current supplies diminish, says Linnell.

“We see growth in the area of feeding hogs and livestock — hogs particularly, because it is a high energy crop and they can adjust the energy on other things. Hog feeders and hog feeding mills really like the product. Cattle feeders buy in bulk because of the quantity they need: so many tons, what is your best price per ton? And often hog feeders will contract winter wheat producers because they want a continuous feed stock supply.”

Linnell also has his eyes on ethanol production.

“Winter wheat is the preferred feed stock for ethanol production because of the productive capacity of it. The key right now is to produce bushels, and if you can do that at a lower cost of inputs, that’s the name of the game. We see that as a difficult thing to adjust to sometimes.”

At the end of the presentations, Winter Cereals Canada promises a productive Annual Meeting later in the afternoon, followed by a bear pit session and a trade show held jointly with the Direct Seeding Conference of the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association.

The Winter Cereals Canada Annual Meeting is open to media and the public. To register, contact Bob Linnell at (306) 848-1252.

For more information, contact:
Bob Linnell
Winter Cereals Canada
(306) 848-1252

New Canaryseed Association Considers Check-Off

source: Farm and Food Report

The new Canaryseed Association of Canada is pondering the need to implement a levy, and is looking for input from growers.

Ray McVicar is helping the new organization develop, a task he willingly took on and part of his responsibilities as the Provincial Specialist for special crops at Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization.

“Currently, canaryseed is used only as birdfeed, either for wild birds or caged birds, so it is a very finite market,” McVicar says. “The demand is very stable. With Saskatchewan being the largest producer and exporter of this crop in the world, if we have a drought or low production, the price goes up, but if we have good production and oversupply, the price goes down. We don’t just want to grow more canaryseed: we would like to expand markets and do some research on plant breeding and agronomy.”

Canaryseed is almost an undomesticated crop. There are only five varieties registered, two of which were registered last year. There has not been a lot of research carried out on canaryseed: in fact, it has been almost ignored. The only plant-breeding program is in Saskatoon. It has always been funded on a small scale because the plant breeder was forward-thinking enough to add canaryseed into his workplan and applied for funding to run the project.

There are an estimated 1,200 canaryseed farmers in Saskatchewan— and around 70 members in the producers’ association. Obviously, running a research program on membership fees alone is not possible. By putting aside a small amount of money when farmers sell the product, the levy would, in effect, generate interest in the crop — “it would give more power to the grower,” according to McVicar.

Rumour has it there are three box cars of canaryseed used in New York City each day, shipped out of Saskatchewan. It is sent to the large urban centres of the world. Big buyers are New York City, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, and Western Europe— locations with big urban centres where caged birds are popular pets.

Canaryseed is about a $45-75 million a year crop in terms of exports for Saskatchewan. It tends to be concentrated in two main areas of the province — the West-Central area, encompassing about 40 per cent of the production, and the Regina Plain.

The Annual General Meeting takes place in Eston on the afternoon of February 10. There will be a speaker to talk about marketing, markets and prices, and a speaker on canaryseed agronomy test plots in the area last year. The plant breeder from Saskatoon will come as well to elaborate on the type of research that is needed and the level of funding that will be needed to carry it out.

This check-off issue will figure prominently on the AGM agenda. The Board will look for guidance, and surely it will manifest itself, for “Eston is the heart of canaryseed country, and that’s why the AGM will be held there,” quips McVicar.

For more information, contact:
Ray McVicar
Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization
(306) 787-4665