Glacier FarmMedia — To Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, there are two main reasons for recent increases for feed barley and wheat.
Haley said on March 12 that there’s an ongoing lack of farmer selling, plus stiff competition from the grain companies looking to export barley.
“That competition keeps moving a little more south,” he said of the latter. “The grain companies are very aggressive in purchasing barley out in the country for export.”
Added to that, Haley said there’s a minor third reason, a pickup in demand from end users after being on the quiet side for the last four months.
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Haley placed feed barley at C$295 per tonne delivered Lethbridge for April-May-June and feed wheat at C$287. He suggested barley could poke above C$300/tonne in the coming weeks.
“If you do see that and the weather is agreeable to production, you better be selling the living daylights out of it,” he stressed.
Weather will be a determining factor, he continued.
“I was at the (Alberta Beef Industry Conference) last week and the CattleFax out of the U.S. is not predicting a nice growing season for Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan,” Haley said, noting “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Prairie Ag Hotwire reported feed barley was steady to higher for the week ended March 11, with Alberta up 15 cents at C$4.79 to C$6.21 per bushel delivered to the elevator. Manitoba saw a gain of nine cents at C$4.60 to C$4.70/bu.del. and Saskatchewan was unchanged at C$4.90 to C$5.45.
Feed wheat in Alberta and Saskatchewan was holding at C$5.97 to C$7.76/bu.del. and C$7, respectively. The Manitoba price rose 10 cents at C$6.14/bu.del.
