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Agriculture Roundup for Wednesday March 10, 2021

Mar 10, 2021 | 10:14 AM

MELFORT, Sask. — Infrastructure funding of $33 million was announced at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention yesterday.

Two major construction projects are bridge replacements in the RMs of Porcupine and Preeceville.

The 24 other projects are for sewage and water upgrades and improvements to rinks, town halls and community pools or water parks.

Ottawa will provide $21 million, and the provincial government is contributing an additional $12 million.

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers said there have been major investments to agriculture since the elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board nine years ago.

Wheat Growers secretary-treasurer Jim Wickett said Canadian grain farmers have been able to choose who to sell their grain to based on price, quality, delivery dates, contractual terms, and location.

He said the $3 billion in new investments would not have taken place without a full free-market system for grain and oilseed markets.

Wicket said the Canadian Wheat Board held western Canadian grain farmers hostage and the freedom to market helped increase a farmer’s control over their on-farm decision making about crops, rotation, inputs and varieties.

Another United States Department of Agriculture report arrived without much fanfare.

The March World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) released yesterday was described by traders as boring.

U.S. corn, soybean and wheat ending stocks were unchanged from the February report. Soybean statistics from Argentina dropped roughly 500 million metric tonnes, while Brazilian soybean stocks increased approximately one million metric tonnes.

Farmers in the southern United States will begin planting corn in the next two weeks.

alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

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