Glacier FarmMedia — Feed grain bids in Western Canada have shown some modest strength recently, although holding rangebound overall.
• Corn futures in Chicago dropped sharply lower on Jan. 12 in response to a record-large production estimate from the United States Department of Agriculture. Canadian feed grains moved lower in sympathy to remain competitive, but corn values have recovered off their lows in the following weeks.
• CBOT March corn lost 25 cents in one day and settled at US$4.20 per bushel on Jan. 12. It had clawed back 15 cents of those losses by Feb. 5.
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• Feed barley into the Lethbridge-area feedlots was trading at about C$265 per tonne in mid-January, with feed wheat at C$270 and corn from the U.S. at US$275 per tonne. All three grains were up by about C$5 per tonne from those levels by early February, according to provincial data.
• Solid export demand continues to underpin the domestic feed market, with more grain moving offshore this year. Canadian Grain Commission data shows 1.497 million tonnes of barley exported through 25 weeks of the marketing year, up from 1.064 million tonnes at the same point a year ago.
• Country-specific data through November shows China remains the largest single destination for Canadian barley in 2025/26, accounting for about 59 per cent of the total export movement. • However, total Chinese business through four months was actually down on the year, with Japan and Saudi Arabia increasing their purchases to more than compensate for that reduction. After buying no Canadian barley in all of 2024/25, Saudi Arabia had purchased 141,100 tonnes through November 2025.
• Canadian imports of U.S. corn are also up on the year, according to the latest USDA data. Canada has imported 304,600 tonnes of U.S. corn from Sept. 1 through Jan. 29, which compares with only 70,500 tonnes at the same point the previous marketing year. An additional 225,100 tonnes are on the books to move at a later date — roughly four times the outstanding sales at the same point in 2024/25.
