Philip Shaw

The Ontario crop continues to move on. This past week your loyal scribe got away to Tobermory Ontario for a couple days. For my American readers, Tobermory is a small town on the northern end of the Bruce Peninsula in southern Ontario. It’s not northern Ontario, but its about as close as you come in…

December corn futures were down 50 cents this week after three straight days of losses. I wouldn’t call it a slap in the face, but we certainly have been accustomed to up or sideways. With Hurricane Ida exacting its toll on Gulf export facilities, all bids and offers were pulled sending bids and vessels elsewhere….

It is getting to be that time of year. Usually in late August you feel a little chill at night, but not so this year. In southwestern Ontario, we’ve experienced consistent hot temperatures and humidex values over 40 degrees C. There have also been a few cracks of thunder and in my case, ample rainfall….

Canada’s 44th federal election will be taking place on September 20th. We heard the news last week as Prime Minister Trudeau went to the Governor General Mary Simon to dissolve the current parliament and set us on track to decide again who will govern us. The Prime Minister has surely taken criticism for his stance…

I’ve said many times, soybeans are the great liars. I was in one of my soybean fields today, pulling weeds. Every year in the middle of August it seems the weeds show up more and more. Get into September, and the weeds never seem as bad. However, pre usual, it’s not necessarily about the weeds,…

You all know I see things through an agricultural economic lens. It doesn’t matter what it is, I simply see things thru a lens where I have that economic way of thinking. My professors at the University of Guelph always told me agricultural economics was a science and was an all-encompassing genre that takes into…

Part of our grain discussion is geopolitics. You know the deal, with Chinese demand for grain being so important. China is that big fat market, which can act insatiable at times. We saw that this past year, we all liked it and we want it back. However, we also know, when it comes to trade…

Wheat harvest ended for me July 23rd, as the best harvest weather of the season finally won the day. I had a series of “negative externalities” as my economist cousins like to say. That consisted of a soft tire that turned into a nail in the sidewall, a bad wheel bearing and a sprocket moving…

It has been another wet week here, which is challenging at best for Ontario’s wheat harvest. Today dawned cloudy and stormy looking as usual, not a wheat day for sure. However, for whatever reason, there was a coolish breeze on a day when you’d least expect it. I started combining towards noon in exasperation. The…

Happy Canada Day everyone. Today was a rather subdued Canada largely because Covid still stalks our country, and we are living under restrictions. It was also subdued because many parts of the country have canceled any type of Canada Day celebration to recognize the tragedy of the residential school graves documented over the last several…