Closing Markets for Feb 25/10

-> ONTARIO PORK REPORTS:

TOTAL SALES = 28 477
FOR A = 4 DAY TOTAL OF = 93 619
THAT'S = up 3759 FROM LAST WEEK.
THE AVERAGE PRICE WAS = 1.30
THAT'S up 3 cents
THE U-S NATIONAL COST PRICE = 68.75 U-S, DRESSED WEIGHT
That's up 42 cents
FORWARD CONTRACT PRICE FORJune July
DELIVERY IS 157.04
WHICH IS up 3.08
THE ESTIMATED HISTORICAL BASIS FORJune-July
IS minus 7 to plus 5

-> ON THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE:

CORN FUTURES:

Mar is down 3 to 372 and a quarter
May is down 3 to 383 and a quarter

SOYBEAN FUTURES:

Mar is down 14 to 941 and a half
May is down 14 to 950


WHEAT FUTURES:

Mar down 10 and a half to 489 and 3 quarters
May is down 10 to 503 and 3 quarters


-> FROM DAUPHIN FEED AND SUPPLY, THE 48% SOYBEAN MEAL QUOTE, F-O-B HAMILTON = 355

-> CLOSING LOCAL GRAIN PRICES FROM SNOBELIN FARMS:
09 CROP CORN = down 3 to 3.72/BU
2010 CROP CORN = down 3 to 3.97/BU
2011 CROP CORN = down 3 to 4.15/BU

*all crops have basis change*
09 CROP SOYS = down 4 to 9.62/BU
2010 CROP SOYS = up 5 to 9.00/BU
2011 CROP SOYS = up 6 at 8.98/BU

*all crops have basis change*
09 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT = down 5 at 4.20/BU
2010 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT = down 5 at 4.46/BU
2011 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT =down 5 at 5.19/BU

Are More Farm Rallies Coming?

Farm rallies could be heading to Ottawa soon.

Mark Wales is a Vice President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and says they are now gauging the willingness of farmers to take a message directly to politicians.

This after Wales says they had another unsuccessful meeting with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.

Farm groups continue to push for changes to risk management programming.

Wales says all Ritz seems to do – is dance around the issue.

Foodland Tries Texting

Foodland Ontario is trying texting as a way to reach consumers.

At the Fruit and Vegetable Convention in St Catherines Denise Zaborowski of Foodland noted they used transit ads to get consumers to send a text to Foodland.

In return, Foodland sent back recipes.

Zaborowsky says while they would have liked to get more people texting, they learned a lot about this new medium.

She says mobile and social platforms are taking off and Foodland has to try and keep up with them all.

NFU-O Commentary

Haven’t we heard this story about penny pinching on public safety costing much more in the end before?

A commentary on behalf of the National Farmers Union Ontario

By Grant Robertson

There is something desperately ironic about the situation where one government agency goes overboard with a regulatory regime that seemingly has nothing to do with actual food safety but that imposes enormous costs on local small abattoirs and butcher shops while at the border Canada has lost track of an estimated 70 trucks full of actual meat products selected for inspection in the last few months. The government of Canada put in place a new border inspection policy on January 4th. While the American Food Safety and Inspection Service inspects nearly 100% of meat products imported into the United States, Canada only has inspectors available Monday to Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. Meat entering Canada outside those hours is, if tagged for inspection, supposed to wait until an inspector is next on duty. From the available evidence it appears many of the trucks flagged for random inspection are simply not waiting around and the products they are carrying are headed for Canadian dinner tables. This situation came to light thanks to the diligent work of Brian Masse NDP MP for Windsor West. He was joined at a recent press conference by Phil Marchuk from Windsor Freezer and Kam Rampersaud from Border City Storage Ltd. (Canada), the two Windsor area inspection facilities. In a Windsor Star article, Marchuk is quoted as saying that by-passing inspection is easy to do, since there's no real consequence for breaking the law. "If that truck doesn't report for inspection, it's just basically let go, a slap on the hand, there's basically no penalty.” As reported in the Windsor Star, Border Cities Rampersaud provided pictures of some of the meat coming into Canada that they did catch –showing “seized meat products that were either infected with maggots or covered in rat droppings.” I saw an online version of these pictures and “yuck” does not even begin to describe them. The question remains what has been in those trucks that by-passed inspection and how many Canadians have unknowingly eaten unfit meat products. In Canada the penalties are very minor for avoiding inspection. Masse makes the claim in referring to those trucks by-passing inspection that: “When the inspection facilities reported this to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), they were informed that the order to report would simply be changed to ‘skiplot’—the designation used to indicate that a load would not be randomly inspected. Rather than taking serious enforcement action against trucks not showing up for inspection, the CFIA response is simply to change their records to condone this outrageous behaviour. We don’t know what’s happened to these phantom trucks, or what was in them or why they chose to avoid inspection.” In contrast in the United States truckers and companies can be fined three times the value of the load they are carrying if they by-pass inspection. Windsor Freezer’s Marchuk says: "Nobody skips inspections in the States because it's too risky and too much of a bother." While Rampersaud added that, “US producers are becoming increasingly aware of the lax inspection standards at the Canadian border.” This situation is intolerable. Canadian eaters are having their health put potentially at risk, while Canadian farmers are having their livelihoods put at risk by the importation of products we can produce ourselves and then not bothering to inspect them properly. Masse, Marchuk and Rampersaud are calling for much stiffer consequences for those who flout Canadian standards and a much more beefed up inspection system at the border. That seems like the least we should be demanding from government. http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Meat+safety/2583841/story.html

Farm To Table

A co-ordinator for Huron-Perth Farm to Table says one of the goals of the organization is to develop a new local food system that would include a farmer's market association. Joan Brady says they've received some funding through OMAFRA to develp the local food system and their project includes encouraging farmer's markets in communities, encouraging collaboration with farmer's markets, doing some farmer training and looking at possible infrastructure like a commercial kitchen. Brady adds community support is a very important component of a successful farmer's market

Closing Farm Markets for Wednesday Feb. 24th

ONTARIO PORK REPORTS:

TOTAL SALES = 19 049
FOR A = 3 DAY TOTAL OF = 65 363
THAT'S = up 4098 FROM LAST WEEK.
THE AVERAGE PRICE WAS = 1.27 THAT'S unchanged
THE U-S NATIONAL COST PRICE = 68.33 U-S, DRESSED WEIGHT That's up 39 cents
FORWARD CONTRACT PRICE FOR June-July DELIVERY IS 153.96 WHICH IS up 1.47
THE ESTIMATED HISTORICAL BASIS FOR June-July IS minus 7 to plus 5
ESTIMATED SALES FOR = 28 000 AT = 1.27

ON THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE:

CORN FUTURES:
Mar up 7 and a half to 375 and a quarter
May up 7 and a half to 386 and a quarter

SOYBEAN FUTURES:
Mar up 3 to 955 and a half
May up 3 and a half to 963

WHEAT FUTURES:
Mar up 8 and a half to 500 and a quarter
May up 8 to 513 and 3 quarters


FROM DAUPHIN FEED AND SUPPLY, THE 48% SOYBEAN MEAL QUOTE, F-O-B HAMILTON =357

CLOSING LOCAL GRAIN PRICES FROM SNOBELIN FARMS:
09 CROP CORN = uup 7 to 375/BU
2010 CROP CORN = up 7 to 400/BU
2011 CROP CORN = up 6 to 418/BU

09 CROP SOYS = up 13 to 966/BU
2010 CROP SOYS = up 18 to 895/BU
2011 CROP SOYS = up 16 to 892/BU

09 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT = up 8 to 425/BU
2010 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT = up 8 to 451/BU
2011 CROP SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT =up 6 to 524/BU