Data Requirements for a Transparent Market

Apr 23, 2021

Improving market transparency is a key issue for farmers and has been a longstanding focus of Sask Wheat.

At Sask Wheat’s 2021 Annual General Meeting, a resolution was passed calling on Sask Wheat to work with other commissions and advocate for the establishment of an export sales reporting program to add valuable knowledge and aid producers in their marketing decisions.

In light of the Canada Grain Act review and the market transparency resolution, Sask Wheat commissioned a report on “Data Requirements for a Transparent Market” completed by Mercantile Consulting Venture Ltd.

The Mercantile Report provides a comprehensive overview on data gaps in grain markets and the solutions required to put producers on an equal footing when planning their cropping decisions and marketing their production.

Sask Wheat strongly believes that Canadian farmers need timely access to sales and export data, like the data available to American farmers through the longstanding USDA’s Export Sales Reporting Program.

Without available data on export sales, farmers are unable to accurately assess market dynamics and time their sales to improve profits. This puts farmers at a distinct competitive disadvantage to other players in the supply chain who already have much of this information available to them.

Although the CGC does currently report on exports from licensed facilities, this historic data does not represent current sales that are being made in the market and therefore, farmers are unable to use this data as a gauge for current demand.

As part of the Canada Grain Act review, Sask Wheat is calling on the CGC to create an export sales reporting program to put farmers on equal footing with other supply chain participants and enable farmers to make more informed marketing decisions.

This model would not disseminate individual company names or sale prices. As the U.S. has been running an export sales reporting program for almost 50 years, with no concerns around confidentiality, there is no reason why a similar export sales reporting program could not be implemented in Canada as well.

Click on the image to open a PDF copy of the report.

Source : saskwheat

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.