👋 Happy Tuesday! Grab your coffee, knock the mud off your boots, and let's talk grain. Ottawa's trade cops just picked a fight over a product most of you have never bin-bagged — but probably ate this morning. Canola found its feet again, cattle are camped near records, and the Loonie keeps testing how low it can limbo. Let's dig in.

Grains & canola: Mon June 22 settles (Barchart EOD). Canola = front-month July (RSN26), not new-crop Nov. Cattle: Canfax wk of Jun 15, ~$350/cwt near records. Diesel: SK retail avg, easing with crude. Loonie: CAD in USD (~70.5¢ US), a 7-month low.

What happened: The Canada Border Services Agency has launched a dumping investigation into wheat gluten coming in from Italy, Poland, and the U.K. — looking at whether the stuff is being sold here below fair value.

The complaint was filed by ADM Agri-Industries of Candiac, Que., and is backed by Permolex Ltd. of Red Deer, Alta.

Why it happened: Together, ADM and Permolex represent all Canadian wheat gluten production — so this is the entire domestic industry raising its hand.

ADM says a surge in dumped imports has caused material injury: price undercutting, price depression and suppression, plus hits to market share, sales volumes, and financial performance.

What it means for the farm gate: Wheat gluten is a processed product, so don't expect bin-price fireworks.

But it's a demand story at the margins — gluten goes into baked goods, noodles, pizza crusts, vegetarian products, even animal feed and pet food — and a healthier domestic gluten sector means steadier pull on Canadian milling wheat.

Mark the calendar: the trade tribunal issues a preliminary injury decision by Aug. 18, and CBSA makes its preliminary dumping call by Sept. 17.

👉 Read the full story

The LaserWeeder folks at Carbon Robotics have a new trick: the Carbon Autonomous Tractor Kit (ATK).

It bolts onto John Deere 6R, 8R, 8RX and 8RT tractors (2019+) with no permanent modifications, then runs the big stuff — pulling a LaserWeeder, a cultivator, irrigation gear, or forming beds.

The clever part? It leans on 360° cameras, LiDAR, radar and Nvidia-based AI instead of GPS — it can follow a furrow with no GPS required, only needing satellites to know where the field boundaries are.

And if the autonomy gets confused, technicians at a 24/7 centre can take over and drive it remotely.

So what: This is autonomy aimed squarely at big-acre row-crop work — the kind of broadacre farming the Prairies actually do — without re-marking every row or buying a whole new tractor.

Carbon is tentatively targeting the Canadian market in 2027, so file this under "watch this space," not "call your dealer."

👉 Dig in

Remember the Monette Farms saga? The Lac Pelletier chapter just got noisier. Friends of Lac Pelletier held a June 13 public meeting to update residents on efforts to move the 2,000-head feedlot, which sits uphill from the spring-fed lake south of Swift Current.

The lot is empty right now, but the group is pushing two petitions — one to redraw the RM's divisions to better represent the lake, and another to cancel the permit outright.

Here's the rub for any buyer eyeing Monette land in the restructuring: the company is under court protection, and the property could be sold, but the intensive-livestock permit goes with the land.

Residents have already launched legal action against the RM, with the case set to be heard in late July.

👉 Read the full story

That's the size of Canada's entire wheat gluten market — and it just became the subject of a three-country international trade fight.

The kicker? The entire domestic industry consists of two companies.

A genuinely sticky situation.

That's your Tuesday.

May your bins be tight, your gluten be domestic, and your Loonie quit limbo-ing before it hits the floor.

Catch you tomorrow. 🌾