THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2012
VOL. 90 | NO. 28 | $3.75
MINOR SPORTS, MAJOR INJURIES | P19
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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WWW.PRODUCER.COM
AG SPENDING | PROGRAM CUTS WEATHER | CROP CONDITIONS
Like gold in the field, so far Good crop, great prices | Growers advised to market ‘significant portion’ of crops this year BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM
Canadian grain farmers are sitting on an above average crop at a time when prices are nearing and in some cases exceeding record levels. “Now you have to strategize how to take advantage of that,” said Neil Townsend, director of CWB Market Research. His advice is for growers to market a significant portion of their anticipated production in 2012 and 2013.
At the beginning of this week, Minneapolis wheat was at $9.22 per bushel for the 2012 crop and $8.70 for the December 2013 contract. “How many times have we sat down and looked forward two Decembers and seen ($8.70) wheat?” said Townsend. “In 2013, I would give serious thought to pricing your first 10, 12, 14 bushels (per acre). Trust me, a lot of American farmers are doing exactly that.” The price rally that wheat and
other crops are experiencing stems from a severe drought in the U.S. Midwest, which grows 80 percent of the country’s corn and soybeans. “One word sums it up pretty well, which is ‘catastrophe,’ ” said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Company, an agricultural advisory firm based in Chicago. It is shaping up to be the fifth or sixth worst drought on record in that country. Forty percent of U.S. corn and soybean crops are rated good to
excellent compared to 69 and 66 percent, respectively, a year ago. Spring wheat is in much better shape with 66 percent falling in the good to excellent category versus 73 percent a year ago. “We believe U.S. corn yields will fall at least 20 percent. That’s the biggest yield decline since the 1988 drought when we had yields in that crop year fall 30 percent,” said Basse. SEE LIKE GOLD IN THE FIELD, PAGE 2
Ottawa may cut $2 billion from farm program BY BARRY WILSON & KAREN BRIERE OTTAWA, REGINA BUREAUS
Ottawa and the provinces are nearing a deal in principle that will sharply cut farm income support in the next five-year agricultural program. The result could be more than $2 billion in spending cuts over five years for Ottawa and the provinces combined — approximately $1.2 billion in lower payments for Ottawa alone. The federal government proposed three alternatives to provincial and territorial ministers. The most drastic was the eligibility threshold for when farmers receive an Agri-Stability payment from 85 percent of their historical average income to 50 percent. SEE OTTAWA MAY CUT, PAGE 3
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This corn crop is coming up OK but elsewhere in the U.S. it is not, which is driving up prices for Canadian crops. | MICHAEL RAINE PHOTO
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JULY 12, 2012 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4