YORKTON - When a new year dawns upon us it should be a time of some optimism if only because it is a clean slate on the calendar.
That is probably especially true for farmers.
While this year the scant snow this winter might be concerning there are months of winter yet where snow may fall to provide early spring moisture to start crops so there still has to be optimism for a good year ahead.
And livestock producers will be wanting snow for pastures but also not lamenting the warm winter to-date that will have been easy on the cattle, sheep, horses and other outdoor stock.
Of course farmers are used to keeping an ear to the radio following the weather forecast, and an eye on the skies, since weather forecasts are often off by a country mile. Weather is both a partner and a nemesis to farmers, the line between the two often a matter of how much it might rain, or how hot the temperature gets at what time of year.
While producers are aware that how successful a crop is, it is dependent on the whims of Mother Nature, their own success is often reliant on the whims of politicians and they are far more fickle than nature ever is.
Certainly the politics of the world is the great question mark hanging over everything in 2024 – and that most certainly includes agriculture.
Vladimir Putin is the largest wild card – you might tag him the dangerous joker in the deck. The invasion of Ukraine remains a hotspot politically, and should he succeed in taking Ukraine the likelihood that success would embolden him to invade other countries and that is a frightful thing to consider.
The situation in Israel is little better.
And with the United States and China at odds, the stability of peace is being tested for sure.
But those are only some of the big picture issues which could change the prospects of farm prices headed into this new year.
Often little tweaks by governments ripple back to the farm.
A decision in Argentina to increase export taxes on soybean meal and oil rather than cut them as newly elected president Javier Milei had promised certainly alters the playing field in terms of world trade in those commodities.
Closer to home what has become something of a bugaboo in all things, how carbon taxes and rules regarding emissions and the related red tape likely to emerge with such decisions, hangs over the farm sector.
And the core question of whether emissions trump food production or vice versa has yet to be fully answered.
So like any year there are uncertainties ahead, but through the years crops have been planted and harvested and the business of farming continued as it certainly will be in 2024 as well.
