Glacier FarmMedia – Feed grain prices took a sharp drop across most of the Canadian Prairies during the week of June 24, as a broker pointed to the potential for good crops this year as the reason why.
“Everything is dropping. You’ve got big crops across the board all through Western Canada. Plenty of rain with some areas with slightly too much rain,” commented Glen Loyns of JGL Commodities in Moose Jaw.
“There’s going to be a lot of grain,” he stated.
That’s coming despite less barley being planted in Canada this year. Statistics Canada issued its planted acre estimates on June 27, showing the country’s barley area at just under 6.39 million acres compared to the 7.32 million seeded last year.
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Although Loyns is optimistic, he cautioned that it’s still early to be sure as to how good the crop could be, and a lot could happen between now and harvest.
“If we keep going at this rate, your yields are going to offset the shortfall we have in seeded acreage,” he said, noting should that big crop materialize, that could result in a lot less corn being imported from the United States.
“Unless the corn yields in the U.S. fall so much and the price falls, it’s going to be a competitive ingredient into this market. Right now, it looks like probably not,” Loyns explained that at this point, the U.S. is in line for its own large corn harvest.
Feed barley prices were down in the Prairie provinces, with Saskatchewan incurring the largest decline at 25 cents per bushel. Prices ranged from C$4.77 to C$5.50/bushel according to Prairie Ag Hotwire.
Prices in Alberta stepped back 11 cents at C$4.59 to C$6.21/bu. while in Manitoba those dipped three cents at C$4.95 to C$5.00.
Feed wheat prices fell further, with Alberta seeing a 54-cent drop at C$6.60 to C$8.84/bu. In Saskatchewan prices lost 25 cents at C$6.60 to C$8.25 and in Manitoba they were down eight cents at C$7.41.
