Cdn. farmers in the middle of the trade war

Aug 07, 2019

Decisions between the U.S. and China affect Canadian ag

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Canadian farmers are stuck on the sidelines watching commodity prices fluctuate as trade talks between the United States and China start and stall.

In March 2018, when the U.S. kicked off the trade war by asking the United States Trade Representative to investigate applying tariffs on Chinese goods, soybeans traded for almost US$11 per bushel.

Prices have risen and fallen since that time, and as of Tuesday afternoon traded for about US$8.65 per bushel.

Watching the two countries exchange tariffs is hard, said Ken Durham, a cash crop producer from Niagara, Ont.

“The trade war hurts all farmers big time because we are at the mercy of the politics,” he told Farms.com. “Regardless of where our soybeans go, (the trade war) still affects the Chicago Board of Trade and the world price for soybeans.”

Gord Masters, a cash crop and beef producer from Kawartha Lakes, Ont. agrees.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the bottom fell out on some of these commodity prices,” he told Farms.com.

The difficulty of managing a farm business during the trade war, paired with weather challenges, could be enough for some producers to leave the industry.

“When you look at everything that’s happened across North America, this year might weed some farmers out and they won’t be able to survive the year,” Durham said.

Canada can do something to repair its relationship with China and present itself as a source of good ag products, Masters and Durham agreed.

Letting Meng Wanzhou, the chief operating officer for Huawei Technologies, return to China could help restore access for canola and other ag commodities, they said.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.