Philip Shaw

Let’s be honest.  The loonie at par is really hurting Canadian agriculture.  The only way it isn’t hurting you is if you are member of the public service or in the American import business.  It’s not rocket science.  From a low of just under 85 cents in January of 2007 to par today and that…

First of all let’s get the big gorilla out of the way.  For the non-farm media it’s almost like its Canada Day in September.  The loonie actually hit “par” today with the US greenback.  If you had told me that in January when the loonie dipped under 85 cents US while I was giving a…

“Markets have a way of correcting themselves—often in brutal fashion—and they don’t care who get hurt in the process.”  (Dr. George Brinkman, August Canadian Farm Manager) Think about that one for a moment.  Dr. George Brinkman is a well-known former professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Guelph.  His writings through the years have…

Wheat is nowhere here!  That was the retort of a corn researcher who was giving your loyal scribe a tour around Champaign Illinois last week.  Most of the gathered Ontario farmers shook their head and looked around.  In Ontario wheat is almost as common as oxygen.  No, we can’t get those 250-bushel Champaign corn crops. …

It’s been quite a week.  And thanks to the Indiana State Troopers I got back very late from the Farm Progress Show in Decatur Illinois.  What is it with construction zones and going 68 mph in a 60 mph zone?  Or is it something about a slow day and two buses with Ontario plates looking…

It has been quite a week.  Ontario producers got some good news.  The hard fought for RMP (Risk Management Program) was brought out by the same provincial liberal government who had fought it so long.  At the same time I was asked by local farmers to host a roundtable discussion on agriculture in Chatham, Ontario…

Outside markets are getting jittery.  Much of it has to do with the world of sub-prime mortgages.  Others call them “no money down” mortgages, loans given to American borrowers over the last decade with little or no equity.  With housing prices in the United States plummeting and borrowers defaulting en masse, our financial markets over…

Opportunity prices.  Think about it for a minute.  What does that mean?  In the old days when I plied the economics halls at the University of Guelph, I delved in “opportunity cost” every day.  That meant the economic cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone and the benefits, which could be received from…

Should we claim victory?  What you say?  For Ontario farmers getting their proposed risk management program on the front burner cannot be interpreted any other way.  It is here after a long hard fight.  Why its here I don’t know.  After fighting for it for years, I find it hard to believe RMP is being…

December 2007 corn futures closed at $3.33/bushel today, a far cry from the $4.25 levels reached last February 22nd and June 15th.   For Canadian corn farmers the double whammy in futures has been negatively impacted further from the cash market.  With our loonie traveling from sub 85 cent US levels in January to over 96…