One analyst disagrees, saying harvest complications will have ‘absolutely no impact on pulse quality and yields’ COVID-19 is throwing a wrench into India’s rabi crop harvest, but that won’t impact pulse yields or quality, says an expert. There have been a number of reports that COVID-19 restrictions are limiting access to custom combining services in northern India, causing a delay in the 2020 harvest. Most of India’s custom hiring centres and operators are located in Punjab. Their services...

American producers say they plan to reduce acres this year, but the same decision isn’t expected north of the border Don’t expect Canadian pea growers to follow what their U.S. counterparts are doing this spring, says an analyst and an industry official. Farmers told the United States National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) they are going to seed 971,000 acres of the crop, a 12 percent reduction from last year. Chuck Penner, analyst with LeftField Commodity Research, said there is a...

Growers in the United States plan to reduce acreage by four percent, which is blamed on steep quality discounts American durum growers are thumbing their noses at millers and pasta manufacturers. Growers told the U.S. Department of Agriculture they were going to cut acres by four percent to 1.29 million acres in 2020. Some people in the trade had been expecting a 50 to 80 percent increase in acres, said Jim Peterson, policy and marketing director with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. He was...

Last week’s March Prospective Plantings report in the United States raised some eyebrows. It is uncertain whether Statistics Canada’s Principal Field Crop Areas report scheduled for release on April 24 will generate the same response. That is because there may not be a report on that date due to COVID-19 related challenges. “No final decision has been made,” Augustine Akuoko-Asibey, acting director of Statistics Canada’s agriculture division, said in an email. The security of Canada’s food...

Higher-than-expected planting plans in the U.S. and a plummeting fuel market could see prices fall below $3 per bushel The market outlook is grim for the crop that sets the tone for the entire grains and oilseeds sector. Corn bottomed out in 2016-17 with an average farm price of US$3.35 per bushel. “You’re looking at something below that for 2020-21 potentially,” said Michael Langemeier, associate director at Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “I don’t want to be Dr. Doom...