It's a long weekend in Canada. Fire up the grill. And because of that, we're doing a beef market update today. Protein, protein, protein. It is all the rage. Consumers continue to step up. I love on a long weekend, fire up the grill. You got the smell in the air. Love it. I Disagree with the 2 RealAg ishi panel members who think that mushrooms are a good addition.
But I also want to first take issue with you not liking mushrooms like sauteing mushrooms.
No.
When you're making those burgers like the Blackstone, your buddy's Blackstone, and you saute mushroom with seasoning salt, man, there's nothing like it's right there in the top burger top.
There's a lot better. It is. It is a hunt. And for those of us that don't like mushrooms, we, when we have our group meetings, we talk about how we don't like the texture. I also don't like turtle because if you've had turtle, like other forms of
food, it's, it's just how you prepare it. You got to prepare.
Okay, but I.
People keep on telling us. But anyway, go ahead. Now that I've offended every single mushroom grower me, North America, we'll talk about some serious topics as well today on Reel Ag Radio.
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Today
it's time for Reel Ag Radio on rural radio channel 147 on SiriusXM. Real Egg Radio And Real Egg Culture.com is your home for insight and analysis of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with Real E Radio. Welcome to Real Light Radio here on Rural Radio 147 Series X AM. Shaun Haney, your host here on this Friday edition of the show. Hey, thanks so much everybody for making Real Life Radio and Rural Radio 147 a big part of your workday and a big show to every watching on YouTube as well as maybe listening on the RealAg Radio podcast as well. A little bonus segment for those listeners and viewers today as well. We got a RealAg issues panel. Lindsay Smith, Kelvin Heppner standing by. But first we're going to do a Beef market update with Anne Wasco. If you do have feedback, send me an email shaneeyealagriculture.com or of course you can also call the RealAg feedback line 855-776-6147. Let's talk about what's going on in cattle markets. Wild. That's probably one way to put it. Joining us for the beef market update is Anne Wasco, the Gateway Livestock Exchange. And how we doing?
Well, I am good. And that's exactly the correct lead off. This was a wild and woolly week. And to put it in a nutshell, cash cattle prices both in the US and Canada climbed that wall of worry. You know, whether early this week we were talking about Brazilian storeys on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal to in the last couple of days, of course, with Trump in China talking about Chinese licences for US packing plants. On again, off again and all the craziness that goes with it. But when you've got cash as solid as it is and Fed cattle prices as tight as they are. We saw Fed cattle in the US this week compared to last week. This is week over week, Shaun. In the south, we were 4 to $9 higher. That's $2.60 to $2.65 in the south and in the north, also 4 to 9 higher. $2.63 to $2.65. Live 405 to 410 dressed. That's 5 to 10 higher than last week. So just an amazing, amazing run to this cash market as it ignores. This is a reminder, cash is king. Right.
And you mentioned China. Right now, Canada has the ability to ship China. The Americas do not. If that changes and we get confirmation that the US is back in business in China, does that take away from the Canadian opportunity or is there lots of room there?
Oh, I would suggest, Shaun, there's lots of room there. And that classic what floats one boat floats us all kind of scenario when you talk about North American beef production. So that storyline, and that's why we saw so much volatility in the futures this week. Anytime you start talking about a supply increase, that is Brazil, or a supply decrease in North America, that is more exports to China, those are big supply pieces that have big implications or certainly from a price perspective, implications on the futures market. So that's why it's been so volatile. But the Chinese deal would be what I'll define as a bullish deal for North America, for sure. And you know, before, before we carry on, I think I just wanted to finish on the strong markets. We've talked about the us, but the same thing here again, talking about one boat floats them all. Fed cattle prices in Alberta this week were also substantially higher. We saw the Cattle trade on a draught basis from 573 to 580 delivered, that's 8 to 13bu higher than last week. So mid 4, 340s for some live trade F will be the feedlot. So just big, big money now. One thing that's still struggling and I keep looking at the calendar so middle of the middle of May, this wholesale price we really, you know, and it's got time. I'm not going to throw the baby out without the bathwater just yet, but 387.45 last night, that's only 50 cents higher than last week. And we're back to another one of those weeks where the select cut out was actually averaged higher, a buck and a half higher than the choice.
And why is that happening? What are the fundamentals there?
It's saying, whoa, too much. You know, you're looking at 90% of the youthful kill in the US now choice and higher choice and prime. And they're saying, well that's, that's, that's too much right now. And so that's how the market, it sends a signal back that, you know, but kind of put a little bit more of the premium back into the slack cut out. So it's a, it's a signal of too much of one thing.
Well, and that static wholesale price, higher cash price, not helping the packer margins any.
No squeeze, squeeze as it is. And that's, that's what we were expecting. The other thing that's happening, it really showed up in western Canadian or in Canadian data for that matter, is carcass weights here. Steer carcass weights too. I don't have last week's numbers but two weeks ago they dropped big time to £900 dressed from 968 the week before. And that often happens at this time of year, Shaun, as we move from the, you know, the yearling fed cattle through the winter and spring into the calf feds. But this is a, usually it's much more of a gradual as we get into June and the lightest carcass weights show up. This was a big drop in one week. But that also I look at as a very positive bullish point saying okay, the industry is getting cleaned up. We're very current on the front end. The yearlings are cleaned up, are moving into more calves they weigh, that's going to be less tonnage overall to push through the system. So those are all positive things, but again seasonal in nature. But they're happening.
You got March retail prices as well, right?
March retail just Maybe before we leave the cattle thing, can we just talk about the two reports coming out later today? Yeah, just because I'll forget if we don't hit it now. So later today we'll get. USDA is going to put out the May 1 cattle on feed report for the U.S. the guesstimates going into that report, a slight increase in on feed and a half percent. They looked at April placements versus last year expecting a 4% increase and March marketings down 9. That's just showing you how much smaller the cow kill or so that's April. April marketing is down 9%. Just showing you how much smaller the kill's been here in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Canfax will also release their May 1 report. And of course last month's report for April 1 showed a big increase in on feed numbers. Just the big placements that continue to move into our yards in western Canada. So we're going to, I expect to see a larger year over year increase in on feed numbers and placement numbers. So remember last year in April, lots of feeder cattle were heading south ahead of right around before and after the Liberation Day numbers. I think that's. Well, we're seeing it in the data. It's completely reversed itself. And we're back to feeder cattle imports and very few feeder cattle exports. So that'll go up in the on feed report later today.
It is. I was in Wyoming earlier this week and although ranchers are having a successful financial turn like we've been talking about always on the beef market update, I'm not getting really drought driven. This drought in the western half of the US it is not leading to a lot of ambition related to supply expansion. It's just not possible.
No. And cattle tax has talked about that time and time again in terms of the US and where the drought is and where the US cow herd resides. And so when you've got a big chunk of the US cowherd in those dry and expected to be dry areas, I mean it really doesn't matter what the price is or what that profitability level is. I shouldn't say it doesn't matter. But you know, a key main factor is, you know, grass supplies, water supply, you know, forage production. All of those pieces say hey, I can't, I can't expand the herd. I'm struggling thinking about keeping the herd the same.
Yeah, I may have to disperse like that. Yeah, that's, that is the, like some of the, some of that area never really even got much winter. We're getting our first snowfall here In May. Like it's not good.
No, concerning for sure.
Yeah, let's run the retail prices.
Yeah, we'll just finish up quick. So this is March retail data for Canada. Stats can data compared to a year ago. We'll stick with those numbers. So March 2026 for beef were up 18% from last year or sorry that's year to date beef up 10% from March of last year. Pork up 11% from March of last year. That's just month compared to the same month last year. And chicken up 16%. So again we've seen that data as we watch the CPI numbers come in. It's not just one product or the other. We're seeing all food products, lots of other inputs. Everything's up on especially since we've seen the conflict in the Middle East.
Protein, protein, protein. It is driving the decision making and yet one thing I was thinking about this week is there's been a lot of talk about airline issues and cruise line. If you look across all the different places that people can spend money, what's doing well is the premium brands and products. What's not doing well is more discount. It's the wealthier people that are spending. They're still making things hum and still spending a lot of money because they can. The Spirit Airlines is an example while United and Delta are doing much better than some of those discount airlines. I wonder if that's the case when it comes to something like beef as as well as we've seen demand discontinue through some of these high prices.
Well any of the stats that we've seen so far I think have to support that Shaun, especially in North America. So we continue to see this tight supply of high quality beef sought after aggressively demand continues to be strong here in 2026 and that that is a key piece of it. Consumers are saying you give me high quality, good quality beef and I'll show up with my money.
Yeah. Hey Ann, thanks a lot. Have yourself a great long weekend in Canada, okay?
Yes, you too. Thanks Shaun.
We'll be right back on RealAg Radio with the RealAg issues panel right after this.
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So many issues, so little time. That's how I will sum up today's real life issues panel. Let's get to it, not waste any. Up first is Lindsay Smith coming out of Ottawa, Ontario. How we doing, Lindsay?
Okay, I think we're, we're in the thick of lambing and so little, little rushed today. Trying to focus, trying to get everything done. I did take next week off from real eggs so that I could focus on the sheep flock, but that doesn't mean that.
That's.
Yeah, exactly right. Silly. But no, we're doing well. It's been, it's been a wild week for weather for us but watching what's been happening out west, I know we'll talk about it as well. The wind yesterday and the dust storms like just wild. So yeah, it's been, been a wild week. And here we are Friday again.
Kelvin, did you have to. Kelvin Hepner coming out of Altona, Manitoba. Kelvin, did you have to tie yourself down yesterday?
Almost. Yeah. It's, we've had 90 kilometre an hour winds here the last couple days and a lot of dust, a lot of soil moving. I've seen pictures across North Dakota as well and it's, it's gross out there and part of this is certainly starting to feel like we could be in for kind of a drought situation here. And I know parts of the, much of the western side of the Midwest is already in that situation and here we are. It sure feels like it when the dust is blowing. And visibility times yesterday visibility was down to maybe a quarter mile due to all the in the air. So it's not good.
You shared a Video or a picture of a farmer from Minot where like, he basically made the point. This is also no till country.
Yeah.
And it's still blowing like that. Crazy. Not potato land. That's like wheat land.
Some of this is unworked soybean land that is like, it's. It's no till soybean land that is blowing. So in some cases and then other, there is some tillage, of course. So, yeah, it's. There's a lot of dirt in the air.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not fun.
No.
I mean, remind me of Lethbridge. You guys are just getting the Lethbridge experience.
I was gonna say it's just getting used to Lethbridge weather, but yeah. I mean, soybeans don't leave much for residue. And it's also the time of year. Right. Kelvin. I mean, there's just. There's nothing growing. Right. So what is. There is still. Even if there's stubble, it's still. There's a lot of bare ground and a lot of dry ground. So wild.
Well, and speaking of dry, like, I was in Wyoming this week with the Wyoming Ag Bankers and talk about dry. Like, you talk to people through those parts. Like, you know, we talk so much about trying to expand the cowherd and retain some heifers and, you know, the market's saying you should do that. Well, Mother Nature saying not so fast because it brutal. Like, more talk about disbursements than retaining females. Really, really concerning that whole. And Lindsay, you had. You talked to Matt Makins recently. We're basically talked about this. We are in a bind from a dryness perspective.
Yeah. So we had him on Monday. And if you follow Matt Makins and Makins weather, he posted some more during. During the course of the week on. He's got some really great maps on sort of where things are at. It can definite. You know, North America is a very large place. And for areas that, you know, not even that far north, relatively speaking, from where you were, Shaun, there's decent moisture. Right. So it can. It can be hard sometimes to remember that, like, you don't have to go far. And there's no moisture.
So there's flooding in parts of Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, other parts of the house, whereas,
yeah, down in the southwest corner is bone dry.
So.
And even this week, like, for us, we were in, you know, last year was dry. We were in a bit of a dry bias even for this spring. And then this week we just had just, you know, a tonne of rainfall, cold rain. And so sometimes it can feel far away. But definitely the discussion right now, the whole focus right now is on the speed at which we move into El Nino. So does it, does it come in quick and change sort of, you know, summer weather, what's it going to mean for winter? But ultimately, where it is dry, that dryness may just intensify, as in just absolute normal moisture and going into the season super dry. That's never a good thing.
How does the drought intensify in southwestern Saskatchewan or a place like Colorado?
Well, essentially, if it hasn't rained, it's not gonna. That's how that intensifies.
Okay.
Doesn't.
Yeah.
And then, so then essentially it becomes. Looking towards what. What winter becomes and if it starts to sort itself out.
Kelvin, do you think that Lindsay maybe missed her calling? Oh, as what? Meteorologist? You see, it comes off the tongue quite well, to be honest.
I think, you know, it's like you in sports casting. Shaun Lindsay has it on the weather set.
There you go.
Oh my gosh. We could have a full, like, nightly news, like lineup.
Oh, don't give me ideas.
I'll do weather, you do sports. Kelvin does news like.
We're in it. This is a fantastic idea. Oh, gosh.
Okay, can we. No, let's reset this whole show.
We'll move the agronomist to like noon and then like every night. We could get every night. Oh, we would have so much fun.
The six o' clock news, four o' clock in, in Alberta and. Yeah, anyway, we'll figure it out one of these days.
Also this week we saw egg kind of go mainstream. We're always thinking we're kind of a little bit of a. Our own sort of bubble, would like some attention. But this week, Lindsay, we saw ag hit some mainstream news media. Good or bad, I don't know. But anyway, interesting to see it happen.
So, yeah, I mean, that's. That's usually the case is that agriculture doesn't usually hit mainstream media unless there's like some sort of disaster. And I would argue we're probably there on a few things, but. But all of us, I think, noticed or picked up on and shared, you know, familiar faces to many of. On things like CTV and global and CTV and all these things of like talking about really the focus that mostly I saw this week, a lot of talk on fertiliser access, a lot of talk linking that to, of course, food production and then food affordability. That's sort of the angle, which is, I think why we're actually getting some attention on some of these ag topics. But then we also saw, you know, a discussion on Monet and what happened there that got picked up in the Globe. So, yeah, I mean, on the whole, agriculture doesn't usually hit mainstream unless it's bad, but it is interesting to see as much coverage as it got this week and definitely focused on fertiliser. And I will say to mainstream's credit, because I think sometimes we get a little irritated when mainstream tries to cover things that they don't really understand. They did do a good job, I think, of explaining it's not just about this season. It's looking forward to having to make the decisions for next season and all the uncertainty about it and how that ends up, you know, trickling down into the cost of producing food and what that eventually means for the consumer.
Yeah. Also call out to the Globe and Mail that wrote a storey about the Manette situation and instead of saying an agricultural based podcast, they actually said Real Agriculture and Truth About Ag and referenced Darrell Manette's appearance a while ago talking to Evan Schout and Christian Hebert. So that, that was, that was actually nice to see. As, as well, we get treated sort
of as a, you know, by name.
Yeah, it was that what you're saying.
Yeah.
And all of a sudden people. It was also a bit of a test, like you were people like, I don't read the mainstream news. Apparently a lot of people do because a lot of people shared that link with me and said, hey, so.
And that like this all. Some of this anyway, inspired yesterday on yesterday's show on the Farm Rapid Fire, I asked where people like, how do you. What's a trusted news source?
What's it.
Where do you get your information from? And part of that is all tied into this, right, Is, you know, I think as an industry we sort of. Even though it's usually bad news, we all are like a storey finally makes it if mainstream media picks it up. But it's like that's also fraught at times with a lot of issues. So I'm not sure why we're so keen to be like, yay, they picked it up. It's not usually good news and often they get things wrong. But still. And so, yeah, so it sparked a lot of interesting conversations and what's neat. And so shout out to everybody who's sort of followed up. Had quite a few people sort of text or send a snap or whatever saying, you know, here's who I trust or here's why I don't, or here's what I miss or. And really overall, just Such a pushback on social, on people having dropped certain platforms entirely and just sick and tired of the nonsense. And that sort of. I struggle with that one too. Like, it's such a useful way to share some information, but it just tends to spin out into the bad and that just. That's troubling.
So. But a lot. A lot of the research shows, though, when people say that what they spin into is content that agrees with their perspective, so they're there. Right. And so that's not good either. Like, if it just funnels people into their own little echo chamber, then, Kelvin, we're not. We're kind of lost.
There's so many options for information sources and places to go right now for media. And again, yeah, if you want to just read stuff and listen to stuff and watch stuff that. That embraces your existing views and entrenches them further, you can definitely find that. And so I think it ultimately comes down to each of us as individuals to be disciplined in making sure we maintain a balanced perspective on our information.
I gotta publish that column I wrote, don't I?
Yeah, you do. And also. And I know we probably have to go to a break, but Kelvin wrote an excellent storey this week as well on RealAgriculture.com about, of course, Maple Leaf Foods. Leveraging, yes, leveraging influencers, food fluencers, I don't know what we call them on the antibiotic side. So. And Calvin, I mean, we. We talk about this quite a bit as livestock producers, but this, I think, is another sort of layer to this, you know, further to echo chambers, etc. We also potentially are incredibly influenced by, you know, someone who seems credible or someone who seems approachable. And if they say it, it must be true.
Totally. It's where we get a lot of our information now is scrolling through Instagram or some people on TikTok or. Or X or whichever platform you're on. And so, yeah, the credibility of that and if it sounds a little bit scientific. Oh, let's try that.
Let's.
I'm going to adjust what I eat now because I saw this short clip where I'm going to adjust my beliefs in different areas, that type of thing. And so, yeah, I had a friend of. I would say the show here shared a link to this campaign that Maple Leaf Foods is running through influencers, basically saying that if medication for sick kids stops working, farming, animal farming is the culprit. That's the message from this campaign from Maple Leaf Foods. And it's different from other. There's an infinite number of fear based marketing campaigns around food trying to get people to not buy certain things and to buy certain brands that usually cost quite a bit more money. There's an infinite number of examples of it, but in this case, Maple Leaf is a little bit different because they are in our industry. Maple Leaf Foods has deep roots in agriculture and sure they just spun off their pork production business into Canada packers, but they're still quite involved in poultry production. And so it felt like this wasn't the vegan activist group using this narrative. This was coming from inside the insider industry. And so I don't know, I just, I guess it stuck in my craw this week and I had to write that piece.
And so I was meeting yesterday where somebody said, you know, I read Kelvin's column, it was really good. So in some notes, hey, we got to take a break. What's that?
It's misleading. It's a misleading marketing campaign. And again, when it comes to information sources, when we know, when we know what the facts are, we. I think it's also the onus on people to speak up and call out the people that are spreading. Yes.
And I think the premise of marketing, you could argue, is to mislead. Like, hey, if I do drink Coors Light, my life isn't necessarily going to be as good as what you see in the commercials. But it feels like this one really crossed a line. We'll be back with more of Reel Ag Radio here on roll radio 147. It's the RealAg Issues panel back right after this.
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Hey, welcome back to Reel Ag Radio and the RealAg Issues panel. Your host Shaun Haney, joined by Lindsay Smith, Kelvin Hepner all over agriculture, covering the top issues of the week. And before we talk about, you know, a crop that we don't talk about very often here, but we will this week. Mushrooms. One of my least liked foods. But I'm we'll talk about it. Hey, boost your yield and your bottom line with top performing varieties from Alliance Seed, including AAC Weyburn VB Derm that features a salt stem softly resistance along with wheat midge tolerance and top yield. That's like a full package Countdown genetics that deliver. Visit allianceseed.com or you can call 877-270-2890. Okay, let's Kelvin, we got trade issues on mushrooms between Canada and the U.S. what is going on here?
Well, I think it could be potentially a little bit of a canary in, in the coal mine issue. But I also wanted first take issue with you not liking mushrooms. Like sauteing mushrooms.
No.
When you're making those burgers on the grid on, on like the Blackstone, your buddy's Blackstone and you saute with seasoning salt, man, there's nothing like it's right there in the top burger top.
There's a lot better. It is, it is a hut and for those of us that don't like mushrooms, we, when we have our group meetings, we talk about how we don't like the texture. I also don't like turtle because if you've had turtle. Yeah, if you've had turtle but you like oyster. Different, different texture.
Oh my God.
Very similar texture to mushroom. I had turtle soup one time in Louisiana. I, I, the broth was great. Didn't like the turtle because it's similar to mushrooms.
Anyway, Kelvin, like other forms of food, it's, it's just how you prepare it. You got to prepare.
Okay.
But people keep on telling us but anyway, go ahead.
Canada's mushroom. Canada's mushroom producers over the last decade have invested in high capacity, high tech production facilities and in part That's a big part of the storey. Why Canada's mushroom exports to the US have climbed substantially over the last decade. And so last fall we saw a coalition of about six U.S. mushroom growers file a complaint or a petition with the U.S. commerce Department. And this week we saw the preliminary decision. It's an anti dumping or, sorry, a countervail duty. There's also an anti dumping investigation that's underway. And so the US is slapping countervailing duty on Canadian fresh mushrooms. It's expected it could start as soon as Monday. A final decision is expected in September. And so to me, in terms of calling this a canary in the coal mine, their excuse for or the allegation here is that Canada's mushroom producers are subsidised, but when you look at the evidence, they're pointing to sales tax exemptions, PST exemptions that apply to all of agriculture. It's very similar tax policies that we have in Canada to what U.S. farmers have, have. And it's not specifically targeting the mushroom sector in Canada in terms of this so called subsidy. And so it looks like a protectionist effort to protect the US existing traditional mushroom producing area. Again, most of these companies, I don't know if you guys realise it's like 2/3 of US mushroom production is in one town in Pennsylvania. Really, it's highly, highly concentrated and they use quite dated technology compared to what Canadian mushroom producers are using. And so I don't know if with the USMCA coup my talks around the corner, it just feels like this is our latest example of everybody wanting a piece of the protectionist cake, buying some
time, using that kind of evidence. Like we can do this for a period of time at least. Also if it's Pennsylvania, also remember that the chair of the Jose committee, G.T. thompson, is from Pennsylvania.
Just saying, I know it shouldn't be like this is Department of Commerce and, and the National Trade Commission looking into this. So you'd like to think these things aren't that political, but of course that's probably naive to think that.
Lindsey, There's a lot of darkness to this topic.
It smells a lot like manure too, doesn't it?
Seems like a load of, you know, compost.
Did you know that mushrooms are actually one of the lowest chances of foodborne illness because they're actually grown in like a sterile substrate. So it's compost that's actually been sterilised. And so as much as yes, we will use a composted manure, etc. Mushrooms are incredibly food safe and they're a great way to add flavour, an umami flavour and to extend some dishes when beef prices are too high. Shaun. They're a great addition to casseroles and all sorts of things. This message was not brought to you by Mushroom Canada, but it could be.
I'm a huge mushroom fan, but we can now enjoy. Well, at least if you're buying them in the US grocery store, expect 2 to 5% percent higher price because of this countervailing duty that's been. That will be applied here.
So.
Yeah.
So it is.
Yeah, I was gonna say it is. It is very much like evidence of. Exactly. To Sean's point, of where this is where mushrooms are from. Like, this is somebody who's got the ear of somebody who's saying, like, hey, we're having trouble competing. What could we do about it? And that's what it looks like to me. So.
And curious if it finds that same justification finds legs in other commodities.
Well, exactly. Canola growers enjoy the same tax policy and wheat growers and beef and pork. And this is the thing. Whether it gets contagious from here and in reciprocal, as well. As countries around the world see the US deploying this type of methodology, does the same thing happen on US Exports and put US exports under threat? Like, it's just an escalating race to who can be more protectionist at some point.
What I find is that most countries have the attitude of your tax advantages or programming counts. Ours doesn't. Kind of the way that it sort of goes, right?
Yeah. It's like, I don't like what you do. Please don't look at what I do.
It sort of gets back to that, you know, government needs to cut spending. Just don't do it in my house, do it across the street.
That's like, you know, on other things. But. But I think the really key point here that Calvin touched on is exactly that. Is that what they're pointing to is very basic, like business rules that everybody, like every business has access to. So it's really hard to say, like, this is somehow unfair for, you know, mushroom imports when every. Every business account I could access it.
Well, there we go. We talked about mushrooms. We got more to chat about. Including majority of Canadian farmers think that there's structural change abound in the world of agriculture. What does that actually mean? We'll talk about when we come back. You're listening to real light radio, Rural Radio 147.
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And welcome back to Reeleg Radio. Shaun Haney, Kelvin Hepner, Lindsay Smith, all of Real Agriculture bringing you all some insights and thoughts on all the big issues of the week. You know, when it comes to seeding, everyone's trying to squeeze a little more out of every acre. It's that kind of market. That's where Bergo really shines. Their coulter drills are built tough. Well that, that's a given. That's Bergo's brand. They deliver consistent, precise seed placement and they don't leave you parked in the yard dealing with, with breakdowns. Less maintenance, more productivity. It just makes the whole operation just run a lot better. That's why a lot of growers stick with ergo. Okay. This week on RealAgriculture.com and we sent it out to our RealAg issue panel. Respondents really appreciate all of the farmers and ranchers that completed the survey in April for the Canadian farmer sentiment. And one of the questions that we asked about had to do with what do you think is actually happening here? Is the current environment like a downturn down cycle or is there like actual real structural breaking point? Structural change abound here and 59% of respondents said agriculture is facing a structural breaking point.
Point.
Lindsay, what was your when you saw this? What was your takeaway?
So the maybe this is too too common but it's the what does that mean? Because I think that it probably that probably means a few different things to different people. Although there maybe we've got a few things in common as far as what that actually translates to. But but I think it speaks to the yes the incredible awareness that so many moving parts right now, so many big things are either difficult, uncertain, volatile, like you know, the actual fieldwork, et cetera, that all may be about the only constant. Everything else feels a little off the rails. Right. And so I think that that does a good job capturing that. But my follow up question is, okay, what does that actually mean though? Like what, what breaks? Right? What it. And sort of the, the comment of like, you know, something's got to give or whatever. What is that? Is it, you know, farmers that exit the industry? Is it massive consolidation? Is it a huge pivot of how farms farm? You know, is it diversity? Is it like all of those are on the table? I think. But that's the individual question I'd love to know more about is what does it mean to you as far as what happens next? If we are at this critical juncture, which I would agree, I'd probably land in that 60% that says like, yeah, there are like some big changes afoot that are not necessarily going to ever go back to how they were.
So. Go ahead, Kelvin, go ahead.
What was the wording of the question? I think it had something to do with or the answer about structural breaking point referred to a permanent change being necessary.
Yep.
So it sheds a little bit of light in terms of status quo isn't an option here. It's 59% of respondents, or 60% rounded off, said permanent change is going to be necessary for farms to survive.
I'll give you a data point. Okay, so our number, the Canadian number here is from producers, farmers and ranchers answering in the US agWeb in Maine ask the same question. Okay. In the same exact way to ag economists. 75% of surveyed economists believe US agriculture is undergoing a permanent structural shift rather than a temporary cyclical downturn. So ag economists in the US Actually were higher in their agreement to that statement than the Canadian farmers and ranchers will. Just for a comparative standpoint. And I will tell you on the road in different speeches in both countries, I'm hearing a lot about this when, when I say the line in my presentations, China may not be the customer we want them to be. That ties to this in some regards like China bailing us out with big commodity purchases. And we'll maybe get to the traffic Trump XI meeting here in a bit, but it may not be the future like it was. And so what that looks like I talked about this a little bit on Wednesday show and was answering audience questions which was great appreciated. We sitting in their questions. I can agree to the statement, I'm like on board, I just don't know what the actual. Like, what does that actually mean? I think it'd be kind of fun to bring up in the future, talk about some of the. The potential streams, what it looks like. But Kelvin, I know this. When it comes to cropping, there's a lot of financial concerns out there. It's tough right now.
Lindsey mentioned consolidation and I think that's inevitable as part of this permanent change. There will be more of that diversification. There will be attempts at diversification, but this isn't 100 years ago when you could pick up a few pigs and a few cows and diversify your farm that way. You need to do it at scale and then you need to find capital to make that type of investment. And that's a real challenge in this market. And so, yeah, it's tough to figure out. And we asked about off farm income and certainly there is strong demand and lots of interest right now in off farm income or even finding new revenue streams within the farm, whether. I think you mentioned custom spraying, Shaun, in terms of the podcast you did with Justin Funk, recapping these results. So it's, yeah, certainly lots of pressure right now and yeah, lots of, lots of people looking for ways to alleviate some of this pressure. And part of this, I think you mentioned China. We also have population growth slowing globally, not just in China, there's just this giant black hole that needs filling and we'll take all our extra crop that we can grow and export from North America. So, yeah, population trends changing. And then also you look at land values, I wonder what. Whether the plateauing of land values in a lot of cases or potentially softening land markets over the last number of years. Our production results haven't mattered some years because our equity still increased because the land value is climbing at such quick rates. And that trend has slowed down too. So that, I think is weighing on people's minds as well.
I feel strongly you can't be against farm consolidation and also be against something like off farm work. Like something has to give there. I think that governments have demonised. If I said demonised, I'm probably being a little bit hyperbolic, but I'll just go with that. They've demonised off farm work. I think that is incorrect and wrong. I don't think we should be doing that. And as I, you know, we talked about, you know, and you could find the storey@real agriculture.com but are you actively seeking or increasing off farm income? 22% said yes. And I Think what's the most interesting here is that 13% are saying maybe,
I don't know though, how many farms have survived in families because of a spouse working at the hospital?
Like.
Exactly. So our entire food system, because we love and are passionate about farming and I know there's other vocations and professions where this is the case as well but. But I think agriculture is a little bit unique in terms of our nostalgia and romanticism around it and how dedicated we are to it. And so we stick with these businesses and in many ways I think our food system in North America has been subsidised by off farm work for decades. 100% it has through the tough times.
Yeah.
Government programmes probably pale in comparison to the subsidisation coming from people working in healthcare and different jobs in town kind of thing because of. And that's carried our farms through and sustained a lot of farms independently. So we haven't had as much consolidation.
Well because often a spouse or partner or off farm work, sometimes it's, you know, it, they have benefits or they have. So that becomes your retirement planning, that becomes your, you know, or those sorts of things and that, that makes the lean years on the farm, you're able to ride them out because there isn't all this added stress, stress financially on the farm because you've got somebody else or, or you yourself are doing both. Right. And so yeah, I, I think that this idea there probably are people who somehow, you know, uphold like if you only farm somehow that's like better than everybody else. That's just out of touch with reality. So especially as you work your way, you know, maybe from right age wise. Right. Is that it's just not realistic to think that you're going to in any way try to start a farm or start your generation of farming or whatever the case may be without some form of homework. And also let's not forget that frankly we learn really good things from not working with family at times that we can then bring back to the farm that add value. So sometimes there's a lot of really non money advantages to having off farm work too.
To your point about benefits, 19% of respondents said, you know, that was one of the reasons they chose benefits and healthcare access to that was the reason why they were doing off farmers work. We gotta take a break. We got more RealAg radio coming up right after this.
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And we're back here on RealAg Radio. You know, it's, it's interesting. Well, it's Shaun Haney, Kelvin Hepner, Lindsay Smith, all of real agriculture.com and, you know, we don't get to all the issues here. Please cheque out RealAg, Real Agriculture.com and all the great stuff that we publish on a daily basis, including Kelvin's column about maple leaf. Bad maple leaf. We are disappointed. That's like. Yeah, Lindsay's given the finger waggle. Finger waggle.
Yeah.
Okay. Interesting. Alberta Canola has written a letter to the feds. Kelvin, what are they asking for?
They are asking for compensation for damages resulting from the federal trade action in 2024 that closed the Chinese market for Canadian Canola. So a formal letter going out from the board of directors for Alberta Canola and going to federal Ag Minister Heath MacDonald and Finance Minister Francois Philippe Champagne. And they are seeking compensation related, of course, to Canada imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs, steel and aluminium. And then in response, the Chinese government put those tariff kept Canadian Canola products out of. Out of the country. And they are requesting a targeted compensation programme for canola growers to recognise the extraordinary nature of this disruption. They say that during Alberta Canola's fall meetings, many growers expressed support for seeking compensation related to this. And so this is a formal request going out from the provincial Canola group in Alberta. So interesting. It's something that we've been discussing for a long time. Ever since these tariffs were applied by China, ever since the market was shut down, there's been discussion about whether the government will come forward with compensation and Alberta Canola continuing to push on that. With this letter sent. It's dated May 8, so I believe it was. Yeah, they made it public this week, so. Interesting and I think certainly something that we can talk about here.
Lindsey, any chance that, do you think that this would happen?
No, slim to none. But I get where as a producer group, as Kelvin alludes to, if your membership says this is very important and let's face it, probably at the time they had those meetings, we really didn't have any sort of, you know, clarity on if tariffs are going to be removed for how long, on everything, you know, all those sorts of things. So, you know, as a, as a producer group, you have to take your direction from your membership, from your resolutions, and the board's got to see it through. So I could see there may be some of that. Here is where this was, you know, deemed important and deemed the action that should be taken. And so the board's got to see it through. And not to say that quite obviously the tariff situation did cost. It's not fully resolved. Right. I think there's still something on the Canola side. Sure. But we still have, we have time limits on some of these. Like we may have these tariffs come back into force by the end of the year. So, I mean, this isn't put to bed entirely. So like I see where it's perhaps worth seeing it through to say that, you know, your membership wanted this. I just, I don't know that it's, it's going to go anywhere. With everything that's happened since those fall meetings, everything that's happening now and looking forward, I don't, I don't think that this is necessarily going to get much attention from the federal government.
I think for a lot of farmers, I don't disagree with what. I think it's a low probability too. I think what's really upsetting people as they see compensation for like steel, aluminium sectors, the auto sector, because of some of the tariff situation with the, with the U.S. and so I think that's what's got people still this top of mind riled up, however you want to put that. I think that's why it's, it's still being talked about a lot. Calvin.
Oh, and we saw more announcements this week of federal support for tariff affected industries, forestries as well. And so, yeah, we're, as we continue to see the government make announcements of support compensation for industries that are facing tariffs, mainly to the U.S. i think there is certainly the feeling that, hey, what about us in the Canola sector as well. So, yeah, that's where it's coming from. And I'm expecting Minister McDonald might hear about this as well when he's in Saskatchewan next week as he's going to be touring a couple different places including a Kns Potash mine. Veto. The animal health facility. Also the Cargill Gill Canola crush plant's grand opening ribbon cutting. I believe he's going to be at that ceremony next week as well. So chances are some stakeholders may share some of this perspective with him as well. And again, he might be on board and up for having the discussion about this. But whether it makes it through finance and the rest of the government again. Politics would say that probably this isn't a priority for the Carney government right now.
I would, I, I would always want to do like the big scissors thing with the ribbon cutting. Where do they get those scissors? You can't buy them at like.
And just. And does somebody have to hang on to them so that you use them next time? Because exactly that. There can't be that many sets.
And it puts new meaning to don't run with scissors.
That's right. Those things are huge anyway.
Massive. Very large. What other applications do those scissors have than just cutting those ribbons?
I feel like that's it. Yeah.
That's the summer. That's it.
Breaking new ground on things. That's it.
It's like owning a combine for like three weeks of work in the year is if you just own those scissors for cutting.
Wait a minute.
We don't do enough infrastructure projects around here in this country.
There you go.
For. You're leasing those scissors. That would be better.
This is.
That's a great idea. Maybe that's what you do. They're like favours. Okay.
We had a local egg manufacturer have a grand opening. I think it was last year where they. They cut a piece of steel with a cutting torch.
I like. That's creativity. I like that.
Use the cutting torch rest of the day and tomorrow and the day after.
Exactly. That's way more efficient. You need it anyway. Yeah. I support that.
For all of our audience on rural ready 147we bid you adieu and you can provide your
[email protected] and make sure you go to realagriculture.com Like I said, have yourselves a great Canadian. It's a long way weekend. I keep on forgetting this. It is a long weekend. Get the grills fired up. Let's cook some beef and mushrooms.
Mushrooms. I don't know about that.
Okay. Thanks everybody for getting really getting connected with RealAg Radio. Okay, we're back to the bonus. I'm curious What? It did that very urgently.
Yeah, I see.
I tried to do some entrapment. Didn't work. It was unsuccessful.
The commercial breaks here are excellent, everybody.
They get heat. They're spicy.
They're spicy.
Sometimes very spicy. Anyway, welcome spicy dish that doesn't include mushrooms.
Oh, my God.
Okay, Lindsay, what did we not talk about?
Oh, goodness. Looking at my list, we covered a lot of things. That's good. We did also. I just want to throw there. Carney had an announcement about our energy future being electric, so that's interesting. We'll see how that shakes out. I know there'll be a lot of pushback on that one, but in the same week and I don't know as we go to air, we haven't heard yet, but maybe I might have missed it about pipelines as well. I do want to mention I am following along on the data breach of the electoral in Alberta. That's a mess. Absolute mess. So I'm following all that as well. Which not all of that is relevant, but some of it is very relevant because of course we have a large audience in Alberta and I think privacy matters. So that's important. But that is a total mess. But more importantly, and most importantly, it's Sean's birthday tomorrow, everyone. So that's what we're going to talk about. Yeah. The 25 all over again. It's remarkable what you've done done in your 25 years.
25 at heart. Body feels like it's 50.
55. We are not 55 yet. But anyway, how are you going to spend. How are you going to celebrate your 25th birthday?
I think I'm going for Mexican food at lunchtime and we'll see where the margaritas take us.
Wow, that's excellent. That's a very open afternoon.
I like quite is. Actually, do you do the beer gorita
thing like with the.
Oh, I love a good bulldog. Yeah.
Is that what that's called?
Yeah, like if you go to Whitefish, Montana, they sell it as a bulldog, which is also a beer Gorita.
Yeah, beer.
Yeah. Which is. Has a great. Beeritas are good. That's, you know, the limeade. You take one limeade, dump it into the pitcher, fill that limeade can full of tequila into the pitcher, and then three Corona mix and enjoy, people.
Oh, okay.
Very good.
That sounds.
Sounds like a kickoff to summer as well. Birthday party.
Yeah, exactly. It does.
It is like a nap. It's like being on a rocket ship to the moon. The trouble is the fall is just as fast.
Right. The ride up is A lot of fun. The ride down, not so much.
Yeah. Also, big shout out to my very. I'm understanding this very patient wife. We are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary next week.
That's right. Yeah. So now everyone knows you're not actually 25 because that'd be weird. But yeah. Also. Also though, 25 years is a long time.
Yeah.
So congrats and hats off to Trish because that is, that's a milestone.
Well. And the people are trying to calculate my age now. It was an arranged marriage when we
were 2012, so as one does in southern Alberta. No, you were young though.
We were, yeah, we were.
You guys got married and had kids very young. So.
Yep. That is not the trend today.
No.
But we are from a different era. I'm really sounding old, but yeah. Happy anniversary. And extreme patience on that lady's part, let me tell you.
Yeah.
In many ways.
Well done.
Trish, you were mentioning I missed this Carney saying we're going electric. Well, yes. Just a data point I saw on the globe, electric vehicle sales are getting a jolt because of where fuel prices are and Honda shelving that plant. We heard that around 12% of all new vehicles sold in March were zero emission cars, much stronger than last year but still lower than the peak levels. So yeah, they got a chart on the Globe and Mail showcasing this. I will flip to that. Is that. Oh, here. Yep. You're seeing on the screen.
So, so. And I think, I think what's interesting in this Carney announcement is unlike under, say Trudeau or whatever where we had. Well, it was just a mess. But Carney is coming at this as an energy strategy and not just any one like energy source like nuclear is in the mix and yes, natural gas is still in the mix. It's not about only renewables. It's not about that sort of stuff. It's much broader in scope and scale. And basically taking the point of the current situation that we're in right now with the Straight or Hormuz and all these sorts of things is realistically like other countries have done. Canada is an incredibly resource rich country and we probably don't make the most of it from the energy perspective for ourselves and then also to sell or export. So that's sort of the gist of it. I haven't unpacked all of it, but that's sort of where it's going.
And Energy Minister Tim Hodgson was also talking about it from more of a trade and sovereignty perspective as a lot of our electricity exports, almost all of our electricity exports From Canada are north, south, or trade, I should say across boundaries is north, south. It's, it's provinces selling electricity into the states. And meanwhile provinces. Electricity doesn't flow between provinces across Canada. And so it sounds like they also want to invest in more of that. And from an energy sovereignty perspective, and of course with trade negotiations in terms of leverage and all of that, there's a play there as well in terms terms of being able to sell and have American customers satisfied with or expecting electricity from north of the border.
Yeah, like, it's like Michigan and Ontario going back and forth. It's Quebec, Minnesota,
the Northeast.
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so same same idea. Is that realist again? Like so many of our industries, it's easier to go back and forth, you know, to the US Than it is provincially. Now, obviously a lot of that has changed, but that is part of the driver, Right, Kelvin, of this is to improve, to actually connect some of our actual electricity grids between provinces that currently aren't.
My dad's talked about this like, you know, the border was horizontal. You always, you kind of wonder if they should just like thought about it more vertically. That's how we're set up.
I know.
Years ago, Diane Francis wrote a book about that, about how North America eventually will just from a logical perspective, geographically, even culturally, there's a lot of similarities. She, she made the argument, I believe that there's four or five different vertical countries that could have formed in Canada versus the horizontal boundary. But yeah, I'm not sure. Certainly that's not a popular sentiment north of the border right now in, in, in certain areas in a lot of Canada. And I would, I would like to just.
I would like to share. There's a wonderful meme that has. It's the map. It's just the US it doesn't include Canada. And somebody's like, we should split the US like this. And there's a line about the middle. And the comment underneath is German here. Don't do that. So I'm just gonna say that there, there are consequences sometimes when you draw a line on a map.
I was in. Where was I? Was I in North Dakota giving a speech and they were talking about. They were asking questions about Alberta separatism and we were talking about that and they, they're basically trying to trade Minnesota for Alberta. I, I felt I did not have the jurisdiction to handle negotiations. They would have to talk to somebody else.
I am. That is not what I'm allowed to do while I'm down here.
Yeah, exactly.
I, I Will say, though, like, yes, in Canada, like the. The Manitoba Ontario border and. And all the space of Northern Ontario. It does feel like it is like a real separation between east and West.
Yeah.
The Canadian Shield is like a mental.
Yeah, like culturally, like the whole bit. The problem is, guys, if you draw that as a hard line, I'm on the wrong side of it and I would like to hop back west before you put any walls up.
Okay?
So please don't do that. I would like to go home for.
Yeah, like, whatever. You know, it's like one of those things where. Yeah, like, that was my thought as I was driving through Wyoming this week of. And, you know, being in Dubois, Wyoming, great old west town, like, just. I would love to go back there in the heat of tourist summer. And I was just thinking, like, I get it. If. If you lived right here, how do you identify and find like, comp. Like, it's like you're in a different world than somebody that's living like in Manhattan. Do you know what I mean? Obviously, geography is a difference, but just like, way of life and things that are important to you and what gets you upset on a daily basis, like, I don't know, it just. It just really resonated with me because, you know, when you're in town of 900 people happy hour. I don't know if you heard it earlier in the show, starting with Hat. We went to the local tavern and she said, well, hey, you better hurry up. It's happy hour. It's gonna be over in like a half hour. I said, oh, well, gee, what's. What's a beer cost me? She says, buck 50
right now.
I'll take two.
Yeah, maybe three.
Put one in your pocket. End up having three. But I posted some pictures on my Instagram. But yeah, like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know.
Yeah, it's just different.
It is different also.
Is that how you say the town?
It is definitely. I was warned. I had a pre supper that I nope, not appreciated. It is not Dubois. It is not Dubois. It is not Dubois. It is Dubois. Has to do with the fact that the something around the storey was late 1800s, early 1900s. The governor of Wyoming had a French friend that he put in charge and named the town after and they did not like it.
But then we don't. Okay, but we don't like the French.
Not Dubois.
I will share. Although it feels like Kelvin hasn't spoken yet. You know, Kelvin, it's actually amazing. You get a word in edgewise with the Two of us. So. But near me is an adorable town. Highly recommend. It's called Almonte and it's spelled A L M O N T E but you say it Almont, but it is actually Almonte, named after a Mexican from way back in the 1800s.
Oh cool.
But you call. You say Almont, but it should be Almonte.
Wasn't years ago. Well, Shaun maybe will appreciate this. Danny El Monte was a Little League World Series superstar.
Who. Which country?
From Mexico or was he Dominican? Birth certificate.
I had never heard this name or word before.
He's a birth certificate scandal because he was way. He was way older than he was a lot.
It was like Caribbean. It was like the Latin American Dominican
or something like that. Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
But he was not supposed to be in that league.
He was a legend at the world Little League World Series but it turned out way too old. Yeah.
That's amazing.
Okay.
This is named. This is like back in like the fibre wool mills to days.
Not maybe descendant.
Who knows.
So really so and. And here's like again, you roll into Du Bois and they've got the National Military Vehicle Museum.
Oh.
And you're wondering. All I could think is I saw this spectacular building and all these armoured vehicles and tanks out in the yard. Like yeah, what. What senator made this happen? Like where are we? Where are we?
Yeah.
And no local who made it big in the corporate world. This is his private collection. And he built a hundred million dollar museum is showing off his personal collection with this amazing building. And I wish I could. In the afternoon they went on the tour. I didn't stick around. I gotta go back. I'm not kidding. Like. Like when you're. That's a personal collection. Like I have a personal collection of though the conference lanyards. I don't think I'm going to spend $100 million for a museum to showcase them.
You could probably like hang them on some hooks though. Really pretty. Like that would work. And what we're.
I was asking people at dinner the night before and they're telling me this Storey, how do you get into collecting?
Like how does that start?
I know how it finishes. Like, but how do you. Like I'm going to buy a tank.
Or like does someone leave you a tank? Like did your uncle have a tank? And they're like in my will, I leave you my tank. And you're like, you know what I need too. And then you just start collecting them. I don't know.
Very fascinating. Well, that went a whole bunch of different Directions. Kelvin, what did we not cover this week?
We covered it all. Now we're good.
Series town names, tanks, two different rabbit trails there.
Yeah.
Well I guess the big Trump XI summit.
Oh yeah, right.
Bigger implications. Markets down today as it looks like we don't have any major breakthrough purchase agreements or anything like that. So. So yeah, I'm not sure there's a lot of different narratives or interpretations as to how this meeting went and what it means. But I think the more persuasive ones are saying that China maybe kind of won this or is coming out on top and it's not a great look that Trump is maybe in more of a submissive position on coming out of this. What do you think?
You know so what I said this morning on RFD is there's a lot to this and I've listened to a lot of different perspectives. It's early so I think the positive spin is it seems more positive coming out of it than some past discussions between really the two largest economies. Some have described this as which I thought is interesting and maybe along the lines of what you heard is from that submissive perspective or disadvantage it actually has become a little bit more of a G2 meeting and these two countries trying to figure out how to coexist in this world at this time. That might be more of the positive side of it. I am we saw Boeing stock down pretty substantial this week. I think about 7, maybe 8%. I'm not sure how everything closed today. A lot of that had to do with the fact there was an over promise promised that before the summit of 500 planes ended up being 200. President Trump said Boeing was looking for 150. I don't know what but 500 was floating out in the ether prior to the meeting. There's a lot of talk and hey when I was in DC two weeks ago I heard this is that agriculture was me very pleased by and they still may be like it just ended today but the initial is not a lot of details and maybe that'll all come up out less tariffs between the two nations is probably good Does Canadian and Wasco and I talked about on the beef market update it's probably a good thing for Canadian beef if U.S. beef regains access to the Chinese market because it's kind of like a tie thing. It's actually a good thing, not a bad thing. So those are my kind of early sort of thoughts is I'm not sure yet.
It just feels like Trump realised he didn't have as much muscle to flex at this meeting as maybe he had in the past, the leverage, like on Taiwan.
Okay.
Yes. But what fascinates me about that, though, is that, or perhaps this is quite a tell in that when has that ever stopped him before from being exactly way over the top? Right. That's. Yeah. Like, I feel like this really does show just how on the back foot he may be with which to Sean's point, it could have gone really badly and it didn't go as bad as it could have. Do you know what I mean? Like, they're, they're still talking, they're still. Right. So maybe it wasn't as like this overarching, like all these new deals, but it's also not necessarily like they're not walking out of there as a disaster and they're not talking to each other anymore. So, like. Right.
Well, I think they're not headed into war imminently.
But Lindsay, to that point, though, I think, think the sign that all of you know that the group of CEOs that went was a bit of a tell that it was not going to be that because they, you know, they're leading public companies, they don't want to be, you know, it goes down that road. That's bad from a public image standpoint. So their boards would have been very, very cautious about that. There is like, you know, what I said on Agri talk is like, there is a little bit of like, mixed messaging here because US Companies want more access into the China market. China has prompted promised increased access and not necessarily totally following through in some cases on that. But at the same time, also those companies want Chinese investment in America. The problem is, is that there's a lot of pushback on Chinese investment in the US as there is with, say, farmland in Canada. And like, that's not, that's, that's going against some of a common narrative. And so it is kind of confusing to know what the actual target is. One thing I would keep my eye on is the U.S. has President Trump has to make a decision on this $14 billion arms sale to Taipei that depending on how they go about that may actually throw the good vibes from the last couple days into a different trajectory. So that's something kind of a thing to kind of keep your eye on. And I wish we had a front lines with Jacob Shapiro next week to talk about some of this stuff. But yeah, the other thing that I think it doesn't, isn't lost on our Canadian audience is the, is the silliness of what some of the messaging was when Carney had the discussions with China and the fact that, you know, I heard a lot in D.C. two weeks ago. Why is Canada siding with China? Like that's still out there. Guys, like people are asking me and I heard senators that. And con members of Congress that gave presentations to us. They were. That came up from some of those people that are in more the border states. So that is still circling out there. The reality is, is that the US is looking for the same kind of access and I think everybody is. It's the second largest economy in the world. Like of course everybody wants access to China. You can't ignore it. So anyway, that's not lost on any of us. I think
I was surprised. Carney this week tweeted about having a China agreement.
Yeah. What was that? Can we talk about that?
He referred to it as our trade, our trade agreement with China. I think he was maybe just had an audience of one, that being the Oval Office. In terms of that share, I'm not sure but, but like it isn't a trade agreement and it actually hurts Canada in our USMCA Kuzma negotiations to refer to it as a trade agreement because either of the three countries isn't supposed to be signing trade deals with non market economies without permission from the other countries. So to call it a trade agreement, again, it wasn't a trade agreement. It was settling of technical issues, including canola and EVs, tariffs on EVs, not a, not a broad trade agreement.
Don't forget lobster.
Didn't make sense.
And lobster.
Lobster, yes.
Yeah.
I think we have come to the point where what we define as a trade deal, we have sort of. We've shifted the goalposts. Let's just go with that. Yeah, right. And if you're gonna be critical of President Trump when he does this with all these countries, you know, we have a, we have a deal and, and we've had people on the show here that criticise that should be just as critical of Carney for doing the exact same thing. Okay, that's it for the bonus. We're out of here. And this was brought to you by the Wyoming Tourist Board. No, it was, it was a lot of fun. I appreciate Wyoming. Thank you for having me.
Yeah.
It feels like what I imagine it being there on a windy day here in, in Manitoba today with that wind is crazy wind.
And I've said this before, I've said it before. When you go across the Canadian prairies, you go across the, the central and northern plains, you just, instead of just driving on the Interstate of the. Or the highway and just, you know, mindlessly trying to get to the next truck stop. Just look around and think about those pioneers in those covered wagons over that terrain, in those kinds of conditions that were experienced in the northern and western Canadian barriers this week and think we do not understand what adversity is anymore.
But also, why do people stop and then stay?
All the different reasons. Like somebody died.
Yeah.
Or like you lost a horse or.
Or whatever. In some of these areas. It just. It blows my mind anyway.
Fascinates me.
Hats off.
I love it.
Hats off to them. Yes.
There's. There's that. That process of people moving west. I think Wild is just. I am so fascinated by. I can't get enough of it. But I'm weird.
So soil historians might say it didn't blow like it does now, either, then.
That's right.
There was those people out on social media this week, too. They. They were like, yeah, I saw that.
Wow. Yes. Okay.
All right, we gotta go. Hey, everybody, thanks a lot for tuning in here to the Real Life radio podcast. Lindsay, Quick Plug. What?
No.
There is no agronomist or Agronomous on Monday.
This is your public service announcement, everybody.
There is no Agronomist. Yeah. Because it's. It is Victoria Day. It is the May long weekend. We'll be back the week after. Still nailing that down, but I'm pretty sure we're going to be talking about what else we can do with drones other than spray, because we're going to set that aside. And there's some really cool tech stuff that's coming out that we're going to talk about.
I thought maybe you would go like a side tangent, like, because that Monday will be Memorial Day, so that's like a grilling day. So maybe you're gonna do like, agronomist, favourite recipes of beef or something.
I wish. Okay, we'll turn it. It'll be a new segment at the end. Okay.
Cheers, everybody.