Canada Markets

The latest DTN 360 weekly poll for Canadian customers revolved around the use of mobile communications utilized in the farm operation. The idea came to me when two so called AgNerds on realagriculture.com site went head-to-head in a debate on the most effective use of communication technology. I believe the AgNerds agreed to disagree on which approach was best, while this is most likely a topic of discussion on most farms, especially where different generations are involved.

By no means is this a scientific poll, but 46% of the respondents said they did use the capabilities of a smart phone. How different that number would have been just a few short years ago! Twenty-three percent said they used the services of a regular cell-phone, 22% used a combination of a smartphone or cell phone and a tablet, and 9% did not used mobile communications.

The poll prior to this focused on the pricing of old crop. As expected, Canadian poll results indicated that the majority of old-crop product was priced prior to the end of April when the poll ended. While 22% responded by saying that they were fully priced on old-crop product, 58% indicated that 80 to 99% of their old-crop had been priced; 10% indicated that 60 to 79% had been priced, 7% had priced 40 to 59% of their old-crop and 3% had priced less than 40%.

One last poll ending the third week of April revolved around expected planting dates in Canada: 3% responded that they expected to plant a week or more earlier than normal, while 3% of respondents indicated they'd start at a time which was normal for their farm; 17% expected to be delayed by up to six days, 40% suggested they would start between one and two weeks later than normal, while 37% suggested their start date would be two weeks later than normal. The responses were made on the basis of current conditions and forecasts available at the time.

By province, 10% of Alberta respondents indicated an early start, while the balance of respondents indicated a later-than-normal start, with 27% suggesting start dates would be at least two weeks later than normal for their operations. All respondents from Manitoba and Saskatchewan indicated a late start; 10% of Ontario respondents suggested that planting would commence at a date which is normal for their operations, while the balance of respondents expected to start at a date later than normal for their operations. Sixty percent suggested a start date of one to two weeks behind normal.

Once again, DTN would like to extend our thanks for your involvement in our weekly polls and encourage you to express your thoughts in our DTN 360 poll as found on the bottom right of your DTN home page.

Cliff Jamieson can be reached at cliff.jamieson@telventdtn.com

(AG)

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