THIS PAST few weeks have seen much of Scotland more like the Canadian Prairies, with a crop snug under a blanket of snow.

This new year has started as 2009 finished, with snow and frost, which has been here since mid-December and looks likely to be with us until at least mid-January.

December has been reported as the coldest end to the year for 20 years and new weather records look set to be broken if this weather continues. Even curlers are getting ready for their grand match on the Lake of Menteith, which has only happened once since 1963 which was in 1979.

One weather fact written last week gave the wrong rainfall figure for 2009, which should have been 884mm, or 33.22 inches, which is nine inches less than 2008 for my part of the Borders. But just 10 miles away, the Aitchison family, at Lochton – who have been keeping records faithfully for many years – had a total of 705mm, or 27.72 inches, in 2009. What a difference in only short distance.

Has global warming taken a back seat for the moment? One thing is for sure, this cold spell will be good for crop disease problems and soil texture. The snow has also helped oilseed rape pest control, but wild birds and animals are suffering from lack of food.

Over the past two weeks there has been little or no marketing of cereal crops and, with the difficult road conditions, movement has been difficult as well. That said, a lot of sheep and outwintered cattle are being fed hard feeding when they wouldn’t normally at this time of year and so it could be demand might pick up for grain in store.

However, merchants will now be concentrating on the condition of the 2010 new crop, rather than focusing on the 2009 old crop, which is a known quantity. If weather conditions around the world deteriorate then markets could start to pick up.

For example, maize could be a volatile market in 2010 given the tight situation relative to wheat, with 40% of the world’s maize grown in the US and if the weather does not play ball, this could cause more price volatility in the market place and more snow could see this happen.

The maize situation is quite delicate at the moment as snow continues to cover large areas of the US mid-west, causing difficult conditions for the completion of their harvest. However, the Argentinean 2009/10 maize crop is expected to be up by 2m tonnes on last year due to higher planted area and favourable weather conditions.

The market is already rippling with the difficulties in the US. January, 2010, LIFFE feed wheat futures have risen £2.30 per tonne, to £106.50, over the past two weeks and November, 2010, futures are up £2.95 to £114.20. November 2011 futures are also up a decent £5 to £120.

In the UK throughout 2009 the November 2010 LIFFE feed wheat futures started the year at £126.75 and fell to £105.75 in mid-September before finishing the year at £114.20. The Chicago Board of Trade wheat December futures closed at 240 US dollars, from a high of $270 and a low of $178.50 through 2009.

This shows the volatility in wheat markets both here and in the US and some farmers will have wished that they had sold some tonnes earlier in the year – a great thing hindsight.

Sunflower oil prices have risen by more than $100 since early November to nearly $1000 and this is now the most expensive of the four main vegetable oils.

That’s because over this past week crude oil has jumped from $72 per barrel up to $80, as the world stock market hit a 15-month high due to optimism of a global economic recovery and as a weak dollar pushed energy and commodity prices higher.

With the pre-Christmas rush past for potatoes, the recent weather temperature – ranging down to -20ºC – has restricted movement to processors as farmers are reluctant to open up stores and lorries are struggling to travel on the icy roads.

The weekly average price for pre-Christmas week was £112.82, up £1.38 and compares to £121.73 last year at this time. The free market price was up £3.15m to £93.13m down from £111.66 in 2008.

Ware imports to January 1, totalled 23,550 tonnes – which is down from 85,417 at this same date last year and new imports are 3000 down at 4736 tonnes.

But, time does not stand still and it is hard to imagine that token potato planting was reported in Cornwall just before Christmas!.