Statistics Canada reports that in 2011, 2,381 Canadian farms grew 1,738,212 Christmas trees valued at $51.3 million. Of that, $28.2 million came from exports to the United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, France, Jamaica, Netherlands, Antilles, Panama, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. And most of that -- $25.8 million worth, or nearly 1.6 million trees -- were exported to the United States.

Shirley Brennan is the executive director of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of Ontario and a director with the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association. She gives the weather and big box stores selling at greatly reduced prices as the greatest challenges facing Christmas tree growers in Canada in 2012.

To address the dry growing conditions, Brennan says the Ontario association reminded its members there are two opportunities to plant trees -– in the spring and in the fall.

"This fall was wet so growers who planted in the fall were encouraged," Brennan says.

The impact of the dry season won’t be felt right away.

"Because we know we lose trees, we’ll only feel the impact if we have two or three years of dryness," Brennan says.

The bigger concern is the price of trees at big box stores, where it can be hard to even find out where the trees were grown. Brennan says the Canadian association would like to see tags on trees identifying them as Canadian at the very least, though identifying what province they come from would be better.

The strong Canadian dollar right now is also having an impact.

"You can get a cheaper tree in the States," Brennan says. "I expect you will see imports to Canada will be higher. Export numbers are starting to go down."

She adds that overall, growers are happy this year, with some Ontario wholesalers reporting little or no change to their export numbers.

For 2013, the industry plans to focus on levelling the playing field as well as year-round promotion of live Christmas trees. That includes continuing with the real verses artificial comparison and promoting National Christmas Tree Day, which the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of Ontario and Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association declared as Dec. 8 this year.

"This is a multi-million dollar industry," Brennan says, adding it's not just the Christmas tree farming but also the transportation and other side businesses created by the industry.

"We need to get promotion out there about Christmas tree farming as an industry, not just in December, but all year."

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Your value chain is about meaningful relationships. To ensure your value chain is right for your business, it’s important that you ask the right questions. Martin Gooch, Director of the Value Chain Management Centre, tells you what to look for when building these relationships.

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During the 2012 shipping season, 432,434 tonnes of grain moved through the Port of Churchill.

That's slightly below the 10-year average of just over 450,000 tonnes at the northern Manitoba port.

It was a pivotal year for Churchill with the end of the Canadian Wheat Board's single desk selling system. The CWB used to account for more than 90 per cent of shipments.

The federal government established the Churchill Port Utilisation Program. The five-year, $25-million program provided shipping incentives of $9 per tonne to assist the port in dealing with the transition and adding new customers. CPUP attracted two new shippers, Richardson International and Nearco Transportation Consulting.

Richardson shipped approximately 250,000 tonnes of barley, oilseeds and canola meal pellets. Included in that total was 49,000 tonnes of feed barley to Saudi Arabia in early October.

"That was the most economical way for us to move grain from northeast Saskatchewan and Manitoba to our customers in South America and Europe," says Terry James, Richardson's vice-president, export marketing.

CWB was the second largest shipper of grain through Churchill. The final total was approximately 170,000 tonnes, mostly wheat and a small amount of durum.

Sinclair Harrison, president of the Hudson Bay Route Association, which supports increased use of Churchill, calls 2012 a "year of transition." He says grain companies could not start buying wheat and barley for export until the CWB single desk ended on Aug. 1.

"I think the true test for Churchill is going to be next year when there is a better understanding by everyone of the marketing plan," Harrison says.

He adds there is about 25,000 tonnes of grain in the port's winter storage program. The Churchill shipping season typically runs from late July to November.

The provinces of Ontario and Quebec have teamed up with the federal government to provide more support for farmers dealing with forage shortages caused by last summer’s drought.

The new program will help livestock producers pay for transportation costs to keep their breeding stock fed.

Called the Ontario Forage and Livestock Transportation Assistance Initiative, that province's program will provide up to $2.4 million to help affected livestock producers in designated drought areas cover a portion of the drought-related costs of transporting feed to their breeding herds, or to transport breeding herds to areas with surplus feed support.

The program will cover up to $0.14 per tonne per kilometre to assist with the transportation of forage and feed, or up to $0.075 per kilometre per animal to move animals to available feed.

The support will be delivered under the new AgriRecovery Framework, which allows governments to respond to unforeseen disasters that result in extraordinary recovery costs for producers.

This follows other recent disaster-relief announcements related to the Hay East 2012 initiative, which is not breeding-stock specific, but is likewise related to problems stemming from drought.

"When I toured Ontario farms this summer, I saw first-hand the impact of the drought on crops and livestock," says Ted McMeekin, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. "We responded quickly this summer to support livestock producers through advanced insurance payments and support for Hay East 2012. Now, AgriRecovery completes the response."

Cheryl Gallant, MP for the drought-stricken riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, says tax deferrals, advance payments and support for Hay East cover some of those extra costs producers will incur to transport feed or to move livestock to feed.

"Forage shortages in Ontario have forced many livestock producers to find alternate sources of feed for their animals that must be transported from long distances at a significant cost," she says.

Mark Wales, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, says the organization was pleased to see that the AgriRecovery Framework process between the provincial and the federal government can work.

Now, he says, farmers are anxious to learn specifics around the transportation program, such as its start and end dates.

"We look forward to seeing the details in January, so the maximum number of producers can receive assistance," he says.

In Quebec, drought conditions during the summer significantly reduced forage yields and damaged pastures for livestock and dairy producers in the Gatineau, Pontiac and Témiscamingue regions.

The federal/provincial governments are offering measures to forage and livestock transportation assistance totalling $2.15 million for Quebec agriculture businesses affected by the drought. This assistance will help cover a portion of the extra costs of transporting forage and feed to their breeding herds or transporting breeding herds to areas with surplus feed.

As in Ontario, the Quebec program will cover up to $0.14 per tonne per kilometre to assist with the transportation of forage and feed, or up to $0.075 per kilometre to move animals to available feed.

The Quebec program is also being delivered under the AgriRecovery framework.

Honey

Statistics Canada is reporting that Canadian beekeepers produced 90.9 million pounds of honey in 2012, a 13.8 per cent increase from 2011.

Part of the reason could be there were 413 more beekeepers in Canada bringing the total to 8,126 in 2012. And there were more hives, with the number of managed colonies increasing 10.7 per cent from 637,900 to 706,400.

Statistics Canada says, "The increase was a result of favourable weather conditions that resulted in low winter losses, particularly in the western provinces. Other contributing factors were overwintering and colony splitting."

Alberta was the top producer of honey in 2012 with 40.5 million pounds, up 19 per cent from 34 million pounds in 2011. Saskatchewan also saw a substantial increase in production -- from 15.9 million pounds in 2011 to 23.1 million pounds in 2012 -- because of an increased number of colonies.

Manitoba was not so lucky where, following a wet spring and hot summer, beekeepers saw a 14.3 per cent fall in production with each colony yielding 165 pounds in 2012, down from 200 pounds in 2011.

Maple syrup

Ray Bonenberg, president of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers’ Association, says an abnormally high temperature spell in mid-March for an extended period was behind a 54.3 per cent decrease in maple syrup production in 2012.

"Maple trees need consistent freezing at night and warmer spells during the day for them to run," Bonenberg says. "Constant high temperatures (as high as 28 C in most areas) spelled an end to the season. The maple trees have a difficult time recovering from such heat as it presumes it is late April/May."

He adds that New Brunswick had a relatively good season because of the snow pack in the north of the province and the Atlantic Ocean influence with cooler air masses.

In Quebec, which accounted for 92 per cent of maple production in Canada and for 88 per cent of the value in 2012, farmers produced 7.3 million gallons, down just 5.6 per cent from 2011.

Overall, the value of Canadian maple production in 2012 amounted to $314.7 million, down 9.8 per cent from 2011 with 7.9 million gallons of maple syrup, sugar and butter produced in 2012, an 8.1 per cent decrease from 2011.

Despite the decreases, it is not all doom and gloom for the maple industry.

Bonenberg says the industry is experiencing an increase in capacity and production. He gives several reasons, including that consumers' understanding that maple is a nutritious and natural sweetener that out-competes compound white sugar for mineral nutrients and vitamins.

"Maple festivals are popular and numbers attending are increasing," Bonenberg says. "Many farmers are understanding that this is a valuable secondary cash crop that they can realize on their property or on rental property."

Prices are strong and demand for Ontario Maple Syrup is robust, according to Bonenberg who says the province’s maple association is conducting an economic analysis of the maple industry in Ontario. More reliable figures on the industry’s economic benefits are expected in late February.

In Quebec, producers are looking forward to getting the new factory warehouse for the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve in Laurierville up to full capacity. Simon Trépanier, interim director with the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers says the reserve is currently at 47 million pounds, up 10,000 pounds from last year.

Sod has been turned for a unique $65-million greenhouse project in Chatham, Ont. that will use surplus heat from an ethanol plant to fuel environmentally friendly tomato production.

The huge project -- touted as the first of its kind in North America -- will see Cedarline Greenhouses use heat and carbon dioxide from its next door neighhbour, GreenField Ethanol, in a 22-acre greenhouse development.

At the sod turning, the venture received a $3.2-million boost from the provincial government, delivered by Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ted McMeekin.

"It’s a great example of how agriculture is growing Ontario’s future," McMeekin says.

The project will create 90 jobs in employment-strapped Chatham-Kent. Production will start next July, and at its peak, it will churn out 21 million kilograms of tomatoes every year.

The ministry says the technology will lower heating costs for the greenhouse by 40 per cent while increasing tomato production by five per cent.

GreenField founder Ken Field says his company is excited to be partnering with Cedarline Greenhouses for a project that will reduce operating costs and strengthen the company's competitiveness.

"This truly is an environmentally sustainable way to produce high-quality products for the consumer year round," Field says.

Ontario is Canada’s leader in greenhouse production, with nearly 80 per cent of all Ontario greenhouses located in the counties of Chatham-Kent and Essex.

It’s also the country’s ethanol-production leader, producing more than 885 million litres of ethanol annually.

Saskatchewan Agriculture has started a one-year project aimed at detecting and controlling bovine viral diarrhea virus in beef cattle.

The objective is to help raise awareness of the disease and provide support to herd owners who have positive results for the virus in their herds, says Dr. Wendy Wilkins, a disease surveillance veterinarian with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Animals that are persistently infected have been shown to be present in more than 10 per cent of cow-calf herds in Western Canada, costing the cattle industry millions of dollars.

A recent study of beef herds in Western Canada found evidence of natural infection in 44 per cent of the herds studied. Wilkins says producers may not even realize the virus is present at low levels, eating away at profits and affecting the bottom line from year to year.

The project will use test results from skin biopsies taken from aborted, sick, deformed or dead calves. Participating veterinary clinics will be provided with sampling supplies and instructions. There is no charge to producers for the sampling service.

Producers can collect the samples, but need to contact their local veterinarian to get information on proper collection and submission procedures.

If a positive result is detected, information on the disease will be provided by the producer's veterinarian, who will then conduct an on-farm consultation to help set up a control strategy for the specific operation. Producers will be reimbursed up to $500 to cover the associated fees.

Infections aren’t clearly visible, but result in a variety of symptoms, including infertility, abortion, deformed calves and chronic diarrhea. The virus also suppresses the immune system, making affected animals more susceptible to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia.

The virus is transmitted through close contact such as nose-to-nose, and is shed in all bodily secretions, with the highest concentrations found in the manure of animals with diarrhea.

Efforts to control transmission focus on removal of infected animals, basic biosecurity procedures to prevent the introduction of the virus and a vaccination strategy.

For more information, contact Dr. Wendy Wilkins at 306-798-0253 or email wendy.wilkins@gov.sk.ca.  

Oilseed markets are trending notably lower so far this week, following a lift from lows established in November.

Talk of improving South American soybean crop conditions is a wet blanket for the oilseed outlook at this time, and confidence is building early in that growing season that record production may be realized this year. But again, those crops have a long way to go.

Weakness in the Chicago Board of Trade soy complex futures this week is weighing on Winnipeg canola futures, as are overnight tests of recent lows in European Union rapeseed and Malaysian palm oil futures.

The nearby CBOT January and March soybean contracts traded briefly above $15.00 a bushel on Monday, but have now dropped away from that mark. The one-month price trend in bean futures remains tentatively up, but developments so far this week are troubling.

The lack of follow-through buying interest after a test of chart resistance at $15 has left a vacuum in the market that now has the potential of establishing a bearish signal on the weekly chart. Key price levels to watch are last week's lows in the January and March contracts of $14.53 and $14.52 respectively.

With respect to Winnipeg canola futures -- similarly attempted an assault on overhead chart resistance -- in this case at the $600 a tonne level for the nearby January and March contracts. But here too, a lack of follow-through buying interest has resulted in canola futures pulling back.

Firmness in the cash market, a lack of significant farmer selling relative to the still solid pace of end user demand and ongoing concerns over tightening supplies in Western Canada is providing a measure of underlying support for canola, limiting losses. But it seems the market is holding up on improved cash basis levels to partly fend off some of the futures decline we have seen to start the week.

Spec money seems to be steadily cashing out of the long side of grain/oilseed markets going into the holiday season.

We could yet see some erratic year-end price action. Oilseeds activity is likely to be choppy, but pressure could build in January if the South America crop looks to be the whopper that’s currently touted.

Looking ahead to 2013, I can see any number of bullish and bearish issues that may yet emerge to the forefront of market thinking and drive prices one way or the other. Oilseed markets maintain a bullish fundamental outlook, at least for the immediate view, given tightening supplies in North America (old crop soybeans and canola) amid strong demand, even at these still elevated price levels.

But any number of issues will, at varying times, influence prices. Unfortunately, there are no clear answers at this time. Each issue seems to be reliant on other factors. Those factors are in turn dependent on the outcome of other issues related to different problems.

As a result of the many unknowns, it is difficult to predict what grain and oilseed markets will look like a year from now. The swing potential for all markets is huge.

If South American soybean production realizes its record large potential this winter, and United States soybean and Canadian canola outcomes in 2013 are even average yield-wise without threat, canola prices may sag to as low as $10 a bushel by next fall’s harvest. It was only back in the summer and early fall of 2010 when cash canola prices were at $9 a bushel or less. That's not that long ago. Keep that in mind.

Of course, any hiccup in oilseed (or grain) production in any one of these areas in the coming year, and who knows, maybe canola goes to $15, $16...$18 a bushel?

In the shorter term, prices should remain supported until South American new crop supplies are closer to being realized.

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.