Stats Canada released its initial planting estimates for Canada this morning, which included several significant surprises such as the following:
Canola acreage is forecast to drop 7 percent from 2017, well below the trade’s pre-report guesses. This is likely the result of last year’s struggles with very dry conditions across the southern Canadian prairies. Canola is an expensive crop to plant, and Saskatchewan farmers say they will cut that acreage 10 percent from last year’s record. Soybean acreage is also expected to drop 11 percent. Spring wheat acreage is projected to increase a whopping 15.4 percent from last year. The surprise isn’t that this acreage will be higher, it’s the magnitude of the increase...
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
