MarketsFarm — Feed grain bids in Western Canada remain firm at the beginning of October, with a lack of significant farmer selling keeping the market underpinned as harvest wraps up across the Prairies.
The barley harvest is mostly complete across the Prairies, but total yields and production remain to be seen.
“The market is still trying to adjust to find that final sweet spot between supply and demand,” said Brandon Motz of CorNine Commodities at Lacombe, Alta.
With the strength in the market over the past month and recent gains in Chicago Board of Trade corn futures, farmers were reluctant to sell, according to Motz. Expectations for price increases were “keeping the bin doors closed for the moment,” he said.
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Feed barley is currently trading at around $240 per tonne for spot movement in the Lethbridge feeding area, while corn is trading at around $275-$278 delivered into southern Alberta.
Barley has a little more room to the upside, “but as long as corn stays up there, barley will have to sit in its shadows.”
For feed wheat, a relatively favourable harvest and no real frost damage this year were limiting supplies, with line company elevators aggressively buying up most wheat out there, according to Motz.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
