The Canadian Wheat Board says seeding will be 10 days to three weeks later than usual this spring. 

Cool temperatures and precipitation across the Prairies are slowing the season, say CWB weather and crop analysts. The weather will prolong overland flooding in many areas and delay fields drying. 

In more northern Prairie regions, widespread snow cover remains. Seeding on the southern Prairies typically begins by the last week of April. Producers will be looking for warmer and drier conditions in the coming weeks to avoid a risky start for the 2011 crop. 

Flooding has so far had little impact on Prairie wheat transportation, although high water levels have slowed train movement, causing a temporary slowdown in the CWB's overall logistics program for Western Canada. Grain movement was also delayed several days last week by the closure of CP lines at Carberry, Man., but was moving by the beginning of this week.  

The CWB says advance planning saw grain moved from at-risk elevators before flood waters closed rail lines and highways in southern Manitoba. 

Wheat required from elevators in the Red River Valley was successfully transported, including a train loaded Friday, bound for the United States through the CN-BNSF transfer station at Emerson, which is expected to close when the province orders the dike closed at Morris. The CWB says wheat is now being sourced from alternate locations while flood waters rise.

Canada is facing another agricultural trade issue -- this one involving glyphosate residue levels on lentils. 

The European Union has a maximum glyphosate residue limit of 0.1 part per million, which is well below the Canadian standard of four parts per million. 

The difference did not come to light until the EU rejected a shipment of organic lentils from Turkey destined for Germany. North American exporters are concerned the EU will start being more diligent following the Turkish incident. 

Pulse Canada says the EU glyphosate residue limit for peas is much higher at 10 parts per million or 100 times the allowable limit for lentils. 

"There is no evidence to suggest it has been set at very, very low levels because of a food safety issue or anything like that," says Carol Potts, Pulse Canada's director of market and trade policy. He believes it is more of a regulatory gap. "I think the fact of the matter is that an application to establish an MRL (maximum residue level) at a higher level just has not been received by the relevant EU authorities."

Pulse Canada officials and their counterparts from the U.S. Dry Pea and Lentil Council have visited Europe, but warn the entire process to change the MRL could take up to one year. 

Canadian farmers will likely have to provide signed statements to grain companies indicating they have not used glyphosate in a pre-harvest application if their crop is destined for Europe. Fortunately, the majority of lentil growers do not use glyphosate, but Sask Pulse Growers wants its members to be aware of the situation. 

"If this uncertainty about glyphosate still remains in August at harvest, we will be getting more information to growers, so they can make a decision if they should use glyphosate as a pre-harvest tool," says Garth Patterson, the Sask Pulse Growers executive director and CEO. 

The European Union purchased $111 million of Canadian lentils last year, making it our number two customer, only behind Turkey. The vast majority of those lentils were grown in Saskatchewan.

A biodiesel demonstration project conducted by the Saskatchewan Research Council from August 2009 to November 2010 has found no problems for the agricultural equipment used in the study. 

The main objective of the initiative was to identify potential problems in advance of the national mandate, requiring an average of two per cent renewable content in diesel fuel as early as July 2011. 

Eight producers used over 50 pieces of farm equipment, ranging in age from 1965 to 2009, including everything from sub-100-horsepower yard tractors to 500-horsepower 4-wheel drive tractors and a variety of combines and swathers. No modifications were made to the equipment, fuel storage tanks or fuel handling practices. 

Conducted at Foam Lake, Sask. over a full farming cycle, the study used 30,000 litres of canola-based biodiesel over 18,000 hours of use, but experienced no biodiesel-related equipment problems, even with temperatures ranging from
-36ºC to 31ºC. 

According to Grant McVicar, Director of Energy at the SRC and an investigator on the study, fuel quality was closely monitored in the equipment as well as the on-farm bulk fuel storage facilities. There was no excessive build-up of water or sediments found and no special tank maintenance performed other than a normal filter change. 

Although the regulations require an average blend of two per cent, the fuels used in the study included blends containing up to ten per cent biodiesel. 

Farmers will need to talk to their suppliers to confirm the biodiesel levels of their fuel. This is because percentages are expected to vary by region and season; for example, they will likely be higher in the summer than in the winter. 

For a full copy of the report as well as a fact sheet and frequently asked questions booklet, go to www.biodiesel-info.ca.

A groundbreaking training program is providing practical skills for farm market managers across Nova Scotia. 

The 40-hour course, the first in the Maritimes, was developed and presented by Michelle Summer Fike of Welsford, N.S., a farmer, market vendor and manager of the Kentville Farmers’ Market. 

“The course covers everything farmers’ market managers need in order to do their job at a professional level,” she says. 

The course, a residential program consisting of two 3-day workshops, is operated under Farmers Markets of Nova Scotia with funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labour and Advanced Education. 

“The course was a longtime dream of the Wolfville Farmers’ Market and FMNS in response to a real need for market managers to have the skills and the confidence they need to be professional market managers,” Fike says. “We all knew many managers were struggling in their jobs and that there were many best-practices that they could be using but were not equipped with the research skills or time to find them.” 

Fike covers numerous topics through the course, including vendor issues, fundraising, advertising and promotions, working with boards of directors and conflict resolution. Although there are similar courses offered in western Canada -- Alberta’s farmers’ market managers must complete training before their markets can join their provincial association -- many existing programs are fairly short with very basic manuals. 

“With the 40-hour model, we’ve been able to cover more topics, some in a fair amount of detail. Our program is suitable both for beginning managers and those with more experience,” says Rowena Hopkins, executive director for FMNS, who handled the logistics of getting the course up and running this winter. 

Fike is also developing a printed manual for market managers to have as a permanent resource. 

Eleven market managers graduated from the first course in mid-April, representing farmers’ markets from across mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. Another nine managers will graduate in May, at which time more than half of the currently existing markets in the province will have put their managers through the program. 

Fike observes that there will always be new markets and new managers who need training, and there is potential to develop a level for more experienced managers. She has had a request from a market in British Columbia to come and deliver the training, but says for now the focus is on building capacity in Nova Scotia. 

Feedback from the market managers themselves has been extremely positive. One participant observed that it was important to be able to connect with other managers to share experiences and ideas and build their confidence in themselves. 

“We’ve given them a context in which to see their complex, management-level, professional jobs for what they are,” says Fike. 

Hopkins agrees. “The benefits of this training cannot be overstated,” she says. “The program boosts the professionalism of farmers’ markets as a whole, and helps prepare them for a new era where people, once again, are deeply concerned about where their food comes from.”

Growers in New Brunswick's potato belt are wondering how a decision to end a 50-year tradition will impact their bottom line. 

Parents of students at Carleton North High School were notified last week via letter and voicemail of a decision made by School District 14 to end the annual potato break, beginning in the fall of 2012. The school is in the town of Florenceville, located in western New Brunswick's potato growing region, which is the home of McCain Foods, processor of frozen food products like french fries. 

In the past, and for the final time this fall, all students in District 14 returned to school from summer vacation in mid-August, then had two weeks off in September to help with the local potato harvest. With this decision, however, these students will have the full month of August off, like those in the rest of the province and much of the country. 

At this stage, the district says students will be allowed to take 12 days off during harvest if they notify the school in early September to make arrangements to make up the missed class time. 

Joe Brennan with Potatoes New Brunswick says there are over 50 farms in the area that require an additional 400 to 500 workers over their regular staff during the potato harvest each fall. Potatoes New Brunswick estimates close to 200 of those extra workers are students. 

He says without these students, the cost of the harvest will likely be higher for growers. They'll look for people from outside the community to work the harvest and could face additional costs like accommodations. 

Potatoes New Brunswick is hoping to work with the Department of Education to find a way to support the students who take time off to work the harvest. 

"Farmers don't want the students' education to be impacted," Brennan says. "We just need people to harvest the crops." 

Potatoes New Brunswick has suggested co-op course credits be given for students who work the harvest, but the decision rests with the Department of Education.

Grain bags are a cost-effective storage method -- but are only good for one use. 

And disposal is a challenge because the bags blow around, get caught in fences and even damage municipal mowers cutting grass in the ditch. Other unfavourable disposal methods include burning or sending them off to the local landfill.    

A new pilot project is being established in Saskatchewan to recycle the plastic grain bags. The bags will be sold to a Calgary company that turns the plastic into pellets. The pellets are then used to make garbage bags.  

The federal and provincial governments will fund the program to the tune of $160,000. It will be administered by the Provincial Council of Agriculture Development and Diversification Boards, which will also provide $50,000.    

ADD board spokesperson Shelanne Wiles-Longley hopes to collect up to 2,000 tonnes of plastic. 

"We have a number of machines being built right now to help compact and roll the grain bags," she says. 

Rolling the grain bags is very important, according to Tammy Myers, co-ordinator of the Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards. 

"You can consolidate (a grain bag) into a smaller, compact, three foot round bale rather than trying to drag a 350 pound piece around the yard," says Myers. "The 200 to 250 foot long plastic bags can hold up to 30,000 bushels. The more commonly used grain bags are smaller and store about 10,000 bushels."   

The Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards is a non-profit organization that consists of representatives from towns, villages, rural municipalities and various interest groups. It collected 55 tonnes of plastic grain bags and baler twine for recycling last year. 

There will be six primary collection sites located across the province, including the ones operated by the Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards. There is also the possibility of a few sub-collection sites to make it more accessible to farmers. A decision on the collection sites should be made in May. 

There is currently no deposit fee on the approximately 15,000 plastic grain bags sold annually in Saskatchewan. Myers believes a deposit of seven to 10 cents a pound ($70 to $100 a grain bag) would be feasible and sustainable. 

"It has to be enough that if you have ten or twenty grain bags, that it would be worthwhile returning them for the deposit, but not so much that you would inhibit a producer's bottom line."

Grain bags are a cheaper option for farmers than permanent storage bins. In addition, they can be put on the field -- saving farmers money in fuel costs.

Canadian pork producers and others involved in agriculture are joining celebrities and mainstream disaster aid groups such as the Canadian Red Cross and the Salvation Army to support Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. 

Last week, pork producers and exporters announced they were donating more than $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross Japan relief fund. Their efforts will be directed through the Canadian Red Cross, which pork producers say is "best situated" to direct funding to those who need it. 

The Canadian Red Cross has established a special Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund, and close ties to the Japanese Red Cross Society. 

"Our industry has many business and personal friendships with the people of Japan and we have all been touched by the scale of this enormous tragedy," says Canadian Pork Council President Jurgen Preugschas. Indeed, Japan is Canada's top export market for fresh, frozen and chilled pork, worth almost $810 million last year. 

Gary Stordy, the council's manager of public relations, says over the past month, some companies involved in pork exports to Japan have made donations to the Japanese Red Cross, and they have staff located in Japan involved in volunteer work. He says the council is also aware that some pork producers will be working with processors and traders to contribute to a rebuilding project, once the specific need is addressed. 

The Grain Growers of Canada also made a donation to the Japanese relief effort, shortly after the March 11 natural disaster.  

"Year in and year out, (Japan's) purchases have helped support Canadian farmers and our livelihoods with major imports of canola, wheat, and pork," says Executive Director Richard Phillips. "Farmers in Canada have a long history of helping their neighbours in times of trouble and in this case, our neighbours are global." 

The earthquake and tsunami devastated vast areas of agricultural land near Sendai, site of the 2007 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists annual congress in which several Canadian agricultural journalists participated. "Extensive damage to farming will be inevitable," says Hiroki Ose, President of the Japan Agricultural Journalists Association. The international federation is encouraging its 30 member associations to consider fundraising efforts for their Japanese colleagues.

It’s a shortened holiday trading week. Markets are closed for Good Friday on April 22, and the production schedule of the Express means I’m writing this week’s report with only Monday’s trade under our belt. 

But to start this week, a mildly bearish market tone for grain markets turned notably higher during Monday’s session, led almost universally by the sharp romp higher in the United States wheat markets. And that was especially impressive with outside markets -- stock markets and crude oil sharply lower and the U.S. dollar index aggressively higher. 

Yet wheat ignored the bearish outside influences and charged higher. The move put buying interest back into Chicago Board of Trade corn and to a lesser extent, soybean futures. In turn, Winnipeg canola futures gained $5 to $9 a tonne on Monday. 

Chicago oat futures also traded higher, up in tandem with other grains, while garnering further support from the threat of wet, cold weather in the northern U.S. Plains and Western Canada to cause planting delays this spring. 

But it was wheat that hosted the positive price show. Despite highly negative outside markets, wheat traders added weather premium into prices. Not only did less than expected weekend precipitation in the drought-like western areas of the central and southern U.S. Plains disappoint the market, but traders are now also concerned about dryness in areas of Europe and China.   

After the close Monday, the USDA's weekly crop condition report stated that the condition of the U.S. winter wheat crop declined slightly from last week. The portion of crop rated "very poor" or "poor" increased two percentage points. Following are winter wheat crop condition ratings reported by USDA:

              Very poor   poor   fair   good   excellent
This week        17%       21%    26%    30%      6%
Last week        16%       20%    28%    29%      7%
Year-ago          1%        5%    25%    55%     14%

New crop corn futures got an additional boost from the ongoing cold, wet weather across the U.S. corn belt, raising concerns about planting delays. December corn has posted a fresh contract high on Monday.

Cooler-than-normal temps are expected to continue through the week in the U.S. corn belt, with widespread rains forecast over the next seven days. The latest weather guidance predicts the eastern corn belt will receive the heaviest rains, with central Indiana in line to pick up four to six inches. 

In the oilseeds, CBOT soybean futures garnered modest spillover from neighbouring pits, which helped to offset bearish factors like China's move to tame inflation, a downgrade in confidence that the U.S. government can control its indebted ways and fresh supplies becoming available in South America as the harvest there winds down. 

Midwest weather maps remain wet for planting corn. The soybean/corn price ratio continues to highly favour the planting of corn over beans. The ratio is nearing the very low two to one ratio with the close of November beans to December corn futures at $2.04 on April 18. 

The market is obviously trying to encourage corn acres at the expense of soybean acres. It would seem in the long run, if successful, a factor that could be very bullish for new crop soybean futures if bean acres are even less than current USDA intentions. But much depends on the weather. If corn planting is delayed into May, Mother Nature may then force some intended corn acres to be switched to other crops such as soybeans. 

Wrap

The wheat markets are setting the tone for all ag markets at the moment. Corn is finding it easiest to follow along, with oilseeds struggling. News that China is cancelling/deferring more and more old crop soybean purchases from the U.S. and South America can’t be good news for near-term canola demand potential. 

The canola market’s trading bias immediately ahead is likely choppy to slightly lower. We have a long weekend ahead with markets closed on Good Friday and on Tuesday, April 26, Statistics Canada releases its first Canadian acreage estimates for 2011. Given the new crop seeding delay concerns, the trade seems wary enough to perhaps liquidate some positions going into this uncertain period for the market.

Mike Jubinville of Pro Farmer Canada offers information on commodity markets and marketing strategies. Call 204-654-4290 or visit www.pfcanada.com to find out more about his services.