MarketsFarm — Western Canadian feed grain markets are showing some stability heading into the New Year, as buyers have generally booked coverage over the holiday season.
“Everybody is just waiting to see what will happen,” said Mike Fleischhauer of Eagle Commodities in Lethbridge.
While large amounts of tough grain were moving, he said there was also plenty of drier grain available that growers were holding off on selling in hopes of seeing higher prices later in the marketing year.
However, trucking remains an issue, with the holiday season exacerbating tight transport availability.
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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.
“Everybody is on holidays and taking some time off, but the cattle still need to eat, every day,” Fleischhauer said.
A number of unit trains bringing grain from Saskatchewan arrived in recent weeks, taking some pressure off of the market, said Fleischhauer. However, not much corn was coming up from the U.S., due in part to the poorer quality of the U.S. crop.
Barley has traded around the $225 per tonne area for the past several weeks, with feed wheat generally a few dollars per tonne higher.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.
