Alberta farmer express

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Count ’em up: Lots of positives for cattle sector A price rebound, a good haying season, and a third packer are three things to be thankful for BY ALEXIS KIENLEN

Strong prices give grain growers a reason to celebrate It’s been a tough growing season but higher prices for wheat, canola, and lentils have created ‘some good optimism’

AF STAFF

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attle producers have a lot to celebrate. “Our prices for feeder and fed cattle are holding up quite well right now,” said Jason Wood, provincial livestock market analyst with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. No one could have predicted that the market would go as high as it did, he said. “If we compare current prices

see cattle sector } page 7

BY JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff

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t’s been a tough year for grain growers in Alberta, but strong prices are giving many a reason to celebrate as they head toward harvest. “If you look at the positives, there has been a move higher in prices in crops that are really impactful for Prairie farmers,” said Jonathon Driedger, senior marketing analyst at FarmLink Marketing Solutions. “That in and of itself is a positive story.” Spring wheat is the one that’s “most pronounced and getting the most attention,” he said. “Even within a wider world of abundant wheat supplies, the supply of goodquality, high-protein wheat is going to be quite tight, and that should be fairly good for prices over the course of the growing season,” said Driedger. Dry conditions in the U.S. and Australia — two of Canada’s major export competitors — have created “some pricing opportunities for farmers in Canada,” said Alberta Wheat general manager Tom Steve. “There is the potential for a much smaller wheat crop,” said Steve, adding American wheat plantings this year were the lowest in a century. “If there is a shortage of high-quality wheat coming out of the U.S., which it appears there will be, it is an opportunity for us to capture those markets and capture a bigger share of the premium

Drought has pushed much of the U.S. wheat crop into poor or very poor categories and that’s been driving up prices for increasingly rare good-quality, high-protein wheat.  PHOTO: REUTERS markets in the world,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to take advantage of these prices if we get an average crop.” But for growers in southern Alberta, those higher prices are a “double-edged sword,” said Driedger. “Part of the reason prices rally is because crops are short, and unfortunately, that means sometimes it’s your own crop that’s short,” he said. “It’s

an unfortunate thing for those farmers who are genuinely suffering from stress from heat and dryness, and certainly, my heart goes out to them. “But from an overall perspective, I think there are a lot of things to be positive about. I think there are reasons to be optimistic.”

see Strong prices } page 6

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