Philip Shaw

The USDA released its September crop production report last Tuesday.  It projected US soybean yields to be 41.8 bushels/acre with the total crop projected to be 3.09 billion bushels.  Corn production was increased from the August USDA report to 11.114 billion bushels; expected yield was pushed to 154.7 bushels/acre. It was a bit of a…

Informa Economics came out last week and pegged the US corn crop at 11.07 billion bushels.  They pegged the US soybean crop 3.11 billion bushels.  Both estimates were more than the Aug 11 USDA crop production reports.  Coming up on September 12th, we’ll get to see the new numbers from USDA.  Will these already huge…

A few months ago I was asked to write the “Market Trends” column for the Ontario Corn Producer Magazine. As I wrote the September piece the other day finding positives in the corn market was pretty hard to do. Other than the ethanol shine at the end of the rainbow, there is seemingly corn everywhere….

Every February your loyal scribe winds his way down to Louisville Kentucky.  I go there to work, always looking for another opportunity.  As many of you already know I published a feature on that show this past summer in Country Guide magazine.   However, I like to kick tires too. For a Canadian it is a…

I like to tease a younger farmer in the neighourhood. He’s a very successful organic soybean and wheat farmer. Typically he sells his crops for triple or quadruple what the rest of us do. However, he doesn’t use commercial fertilizer, the whole nine yards. Beating the weeds is his annual challenge. I have often thought…

It is the eve of the big USDA August 11th crop report.  The experts are saying 10.8 billion bushels of corn, 3 plus billion bushels of soybeans and good weather ahead.  It seems with all those triple stacked bt-corn seeds, yields just keep climbing.  However, maybe I’m wrong.  That’s why we have a market and…

If you live in Western Canada you know them well.  If you are in Eastern Canada, you probably don’t know them.  Last week fertilizer producer Agrium reported a record profit of $142 million US in the second quarter of this year.  It was a reminder to me that all is not necessarily doom and gloom…

In my part of Canada it is like a garden.  I’ve farmed for all my life, but rarely have I seen it as lush as it is this year.  There is still time for mother nature to exact her vengence.  However, on the rural concessions of southwestern Ontario, I’ve rarely seen corn and other crops…

A reader from Eastern Ontario contacted me last week regarding the American Loan Deficiency Payments.  Long the scourge of Canadian corn growers, the LDP is a major part of how the American corn farmer can thrive at times when prices go south. Consider this.  According to an AP report published July 19th in DTN News,…

Last April 5th I gazed out into a crowd of 10,000 people in front of me at the Parliament Buildings.  I wouldn’t say everything about that was easy.  I had never spoken to that many people before.  However, as the pitch of the Ottawa Solidarity Farm Rally reached a crescendo everybody on stage felt good. …