One truth of the life of farmers is that they keep at least one eye on the skies.
At least that was the case when I was growing up. Weather controls the fate of a farm on a year-to-year basis, and the arrival of timely rains, avoiding times of excess moisture as seeding or harvest take place, and missing late spring and early fall frosts are all elements of turning a profit that farmers have no control over.
So instead they looked to the sky for an indication of the weather and crossed their fingers all would work out.
Today the act of watching the skies is less an actual turn of the head skyward, and more of a watch on the internet to see not only what weather might be impacting the local farm, but also what weather is occurring in other grain growing regions of the world.
As much as farmers focus on optimizing technology, nutrients and farm chemicals, and the marketplace tries to stabilize things through forward pricing and stock market wrangling, weather remains the one key element of food production beyond control, so its patterns are watched closely.
Grains and oilseeds sell into a very global marketplace. Canada is not the only country that sells wheat, or barley, oats or flax. Competition exists, but when that competition has weather which downgrades quality, or cuts yields it can open the market door wider to Canadian production.
The same weather that hurts quality and yields on a large enough scale can also send a message to the marketplace that supplies might be tighter, and that can send prices higher.
As much as farmers focus on optimizing technology, nutrients and farm chemicals, and the marketplace tries to stabilize things through forward pricing and stock market wrangling, weather remains the one key element of food production beyond control, so its patterns are watched closely.
So the news that came out of Australia Dec. 1, caught attention internationally for farmers.
A Reuters story out of Australia picked up by the Western Producer noted heavy rains in eastern Australia were forecast to intensify over the weekend threatening to wipe out or damage up to four million tonnes of wheat due to be harvested soon, with many grain storage sites forced to close.
That is the sort of weather situation which sends a ripple through global wheat markets.
Then, factor in another Reuters story a few days earlier out of Moscow suggesting Russia鈥檚 winter grain sowings are in a worse condition than a year ago. That may be significant since 鈥淩ussia, one of the world鈥檚 largest wheat exporters, harvested a record grain crop this year mostly due to favourable weather in spring and early summer,鈥� noted the Western Producer pick-up of the story.
The Russian situation alone is not a huge threat to production but add in the concerns in Australia and there may be indications of weather impacts which could send prices higher moving into 2018.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
