Things to Watch for in Early 2008

[Zaphod]

I'm sorry, but what is the connection to the topic? A lot of caution needed here with different IQ tests from different decades and different methods used and small sample sizes (eg. 313 in Canada). I wouldn't put much stock in this table.

[mbret]

In the valley of MB everyone is bullish. Corn is at 4.50, beans at 10.50. Land prices are up, land rent is a bit shy of $100 / ac.

[parsley]

Look at everyone in the world as a potential customer. You produce and want to sell. They want to buy.

Variability and diversity is what the world is.

Just the same as crop reports may be scant, and lack accuracy, they provide a glimpse at a given moment.

Where the genome project is/will be heading/is contemplating/ will have a profound effect upon how we view the world we live in. How we interpret our world. How we alter our world.

Genes. Things to watch for in 2008.

[dalek]

Rent doesn't seem to be changing here, about $40. A lot of cattle got sold off and the land rented out last spring, probably a lot more again this spring. Most of it isn't really suited for anything but pasture and rough hay though.
Sold 09 SRWW this morning, $212/tonne.

[kamichel]

Cash rent not moving here yet. Some tuff years in the past still in local farmers minds. Still around 20 -30 dollars per acre. Some nice crop share checks being paid. Farmers worried about the large expenses so don't want to pay more.
Outside investors (Alberta investors) looking for someone to rent the land yet. Pretty much all the yard sites have been bought up from people escaping or moving back from Alberta.
Now that reminds me I still must meet about a dozen new neighbours.

[SASKFARMER3]

Rent is also in the 25-35 an Acre range and I can pick up another 8 - 10 Quarters if I want. Tried to buy some or most of it and the guy wont sell. Most of the Albertans are on a steep learning curve. Farming is different on this side of the prairies.

[freewheat]

Being in an area that has had no real crop since 2003, I can not see land prices/rents rising until we actually get a crop some year. These high prices are absolutely great... If you have a crop. 2007 was my worst year EVER. Which followed my second worst and third worst farming years. This goes for a large region of eastern Saskatchewan. Not a very optimistic area, unless your daddy was a loaded land baron, or you farmed in the 1970's. 2008 is a do or die year. As farmers, we also tend to forget what happened the last time things were so optimistic. The CRASH was heard for light years away, after all the experts said it was a bull market . Which was bull of course. Two years ago these experts were saying prices would remain low. And here we are. NOBODY knows what may happen, just remember this. For all we know canola could be 7.50 by June. It has happened before, quite unexpected by the experts, regardless of what the fundamentals may seem to be.

May 2008 be good to all of us, may we sell our grain to the highest bidder, incuding wheat and barley, and may the rains in eastern Saskatchewan hold off until late June, or July...