St. Jean Farm Days Reaches 35-Year Milestone

Jan 02, 2020

St Jean Farm Days is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

The event takes place January 8th and 9th at the St. Jean Centennial Hall.

Organizer Brunel Sabourin said his parents were part of the original organizing committee 35 years ago. The event was started in conjunction with Manitoba Agriculture. He says they are now seeing a third generation of volunteers helping to run the show.

St. Jean Farm Days is known as being the unofficial start of the farm show season.

"This year we're going to be talking a lot about the late season/wet fall that we had and what it's going to look like for next spring because not a lot of fertilizer went down last fall, so it's going to potentially cause some logistics issue come spring time and there's a lot of fields that got rutted up with the high rainfall that we got," said Sabourin. "We're going to be dealing with compaction issues and cleaning up those ruts, putting fertilizer down."

As always, the speaker list also includes weather and market outlooks.

Sabourin says they're maxed out at about 60 exhibitor booths with attendance usually ranging anywhere from a low of 80 people to as high as 130, which they saw recently. Close to 20 volunteers help to make the event a success every year.

He notes admission prices have gone up this year.

"This year will be the first year that we've raised our price since the beginning. All 35 years so far it was $6 entry at the door or $10 for couples. For this year we've raised the price to $10 for everyone just to make things easier. We're hoping to be able to make a donation to STARS Ambulance with the proceeds."

Click here to see more...

Video: Will the 2025 USDA December Crop Report Be a Market Mover/Surprise?

Historically, the USDA December crop report is a non-event or another dud report as the USDA reserves any final supply changes to the final report in January of the following year in this case 2026. But after the longest U.S. government shutdown in history at 43 days and no October crop report will they provide more data/surprise and make an exception?
Our China U.S. soybean purchase tracker is now at 26.6% or a total of 3.2 mmt but for traders it’s taking too long to unfold.
The final Stats Canada production report was bearish canola and wheat projection a record crop in both (it adds to the global glut of supplies) and bullish local corn and soybean prices in Ontario/Quebec thanks to a drought. It will not help the fund flow short-term, the USDA may need to offset it?
A U.S. Fed interest rate cut of another 25-basis point next Wednesday (probability 87.1%) could help fund flow and sentiment in stock and ag commodities into year end.
More inflows into Bitcoin this past week saw prices rebound back above 90,000 with support at 82,000 and resistance at 96,000.
A V-shaped bottom in cattle suggest the lows are in after Mexico reported another new world screwworm case. Lower weights, seasonal demand and higher U.S. beef select/choice values with a continued closure of the Mexican border to cattle will result in a resumption of higher cattle futures into yearend.
Australia is expected to produce its 3rd largest wheat crop ever at 36 mmt adding to the global glut of supplies.
Reports of ASF in hogs in Spain the largest pork exporter in Europe could see the U.S. win more pork export business long-term.
If the rains verify into next week of 3-5 inches for Brazil it would go a long way to fixing the dry regions from the last 2-months, but the European weather model has been wrong for the past 2-months!
Natural gas futures are surging to the 3rd price count as frigid hold temps set in.
CDN $ is also surging to end the week on a very resilient economy and better employment numbers suggesting no interest rate cuts next week.
Finally, the CFTC report showed funds were net buyers of soybeans but sellers of corn, canola and wheat. In real time the funds have gone back to selling as they take some profits.