MarketsFarm — Grain movement at the Port of Thunder Bay included a rare inbound cargo of feed wheat, according to the port’s latest monthly report.
A 12,000-tonne shipment of feed wheat was delivered to Richardson’s Current River elevator from the company’s facility in Hamilton, Ont.
The wheat was said to be destined for Manitoba feedlots, where drought has cut into local feed supplies.
Thunder Bay elevators typically load out eight million tonnes of grain annually, but records of inbound shipments are non-existent, according to the report.
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As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
“Grain production analysts are predicting significant reductions in production on the Prairies due to extreme heat, drought and grasshopper damage,” port officials said, adding this will likely impact port tonnage through the second half of the season, when cargo volumes are “typically driven by harvesting activity.”
Total grain tonnage moved through Thunder Bay in August came in at 566,495 tonnes, marking a three-year low for the month.
Year-to-date shipments of just over four million tonnes were running about a million tonnes behind the 25-year high pace seen in 2021 but were in line with the previous average.
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