Glacier FarmMedia – Due to good supplies, prices for feed barley and wheat continued to slide back, according to Jim Beusekom of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge, Alta.
Beusekom quoted feed barley at C$280 to C$285/tonne delivered to Lethbridge, having lost C$5 to C$10 per tonne over the last week. He stated that was “a pretty good move down” for the commodity. He said feed wheat backtracked by the same range, with prices at C$305 to C$310/tonne.
“Corn coming from the U.S. today, will deliver to a feedlot at roughly C$295/tonne,” he said, noting “all three of these commodities are within spitting distance of each other.”
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Beusekom explained the livestock feeders remained well covered, which has put pressure on feed prices. He said they made their purchases of U.S. corn during the height of last summer’s drought.
“Livestock feeders thought we would be significantly short on barley. So they went out and bought corn and they bought a lot of it. That covered whatever we were short on barley,” he said, pointing to a second reason for declining prices.
“Once farmers knew what they had, they refused to engage in selling it. They held on to it. Prices have been in a downtrend for seven months. Each week and each month the market is lower than the previous week or month,” Beusekom continued. “Even when [farmers] should have been making barley sales, feedlots were again forced to buy even more corn. Today that means you now have a surplus of barley.”
Beusekom pointed to the stocks as of Dec. 31 report from Statistics Canada that was released on Feb. 8. Barley stocks were estimated to be 5.45 million tonnes, up from the 5.17 million the previous year. With that, he said barley could see ending stocks of about two million tonnes when the 2023/24 marketing year wraps up at the end of July.
“That’s absolutely bearish for barley,” he warned.
Last month, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada forecast the barley carryout for 2023/24 at 750,000 tonnes, up from 709,000 in 2022/24. And AAFC projected the 2024/25 carryout at 800,000 tonnes.
Also, the Canadian Grain Commission reported the amount of barley in the commercial pipeline were lower than a year ago. The CGC said producer deliveries of barley at through 27 weeks of the 2023/24 marketing year were 2.18 million tonnes versus nearly 2.99 million a year ago. Exports so far reached 962,300 tonnes versus almost 1.74 million, and domestic usage slipped to 773,300 tonnes from 839,800.
