MarketsFarm — With feed barley and wheat supplies on the verge of running out, prices remain firm, according to Mike Fleischhauer of Eagle Commodities in Lethbridge.
“They’re on the positive side of stationary,” he said, noting prices could soon change following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.
“With what’s going on with Ukraine and Russia… everything is going up on the futures today,” he added.
On the Chicago Board of Trade, prices for CBOT and K.C. wheat surged by their daily limits of 50 U.S. cents per bushel. However, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its preliminary outlook forecast, market prices backed away. The department projected total U.S. wheat production in 2022-23 to balloon to 1.94 billion bushels.
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Fleischhauer said there will be transition in Feedlot Alley coming soon.
“For a lot of the big guys here, this is their last week that they will have any barley,” he said. “Next week they’ll be starting fully on corn.”
Feedlots are presently blending corn imported from the U.S. with their remaining barley or wheat to wean cattle off of the latter two, Fleischhauer explained.
As for prices, he said feed barley was around $420 per tonne, with feed wheat going for $435; corn was the least expensive, at $415.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
