Prices more available as harvest continues

By Glen Hallick
Glacier FarmMedia staff

Pricing for organic grain was becoming more common across Canada as the harvest progressed in late-August. For at least a year, prices for various organic grains were unavailable due to a lack of demand as buyers waited for the new crop to start rolling in.

“There’s demand for hard red spring wheat, there’s demand for durum, there’s demand for Khorasan, and there’s demand for spelt,” stated Harro Wehrmann of Wehrmann Grain and Seed in Ripley, Ont.

“On the food side there’s lots of demand, but on the feed side not so much,” he continued. “People don’t have enough money to buy meat. So the pork industry and the poultry industry switched to conventional [feed] to a large extent in the United States and eastern Canada.”

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Wehrmann pointed to higher mortgage rates as one of the reasons why people have less money to spend.

“I hope people will spend more money on meat very soon so we can get rid of some of the feed grains, but I don’t see that happening any time soon,” he stated.

By the end of August, the organic grain harvest in Ontario was at its ‘in between stage,’ according to Wehrmann, noting the combining of cereals was largely finished.

“The corn, the soybeans and the sunflower aren’t ready yet,” he said.

“It’s been a longer, drawn out period than most years,” he commented about the Ontario harvest. “We had rain every two to three days. The quality has suffered a bit on the wheat.”

On the Canadian Prairies, prices for old crop organic wheat took a bit of a dip after an influx of the crop suddenly appeared on the market, according to Jason Breault of RW Organics in Mossbank, Sask.

The old and new crop prices have converged. They’re six of one and a half dozen of the other. – Bill Longman

Of the organic wheat harvested already, Breault said he has yet to see a lot of samples, but what he has seen of hard red spring wheat its protein content was 13 per cent or more.

Bill Longman of Sunrise Foods International in Saskatoon, Sask. also said the harvest on the Prairies was picking up steam, and there were some price changes.

“The old and new crop prices have converged. They’re six of one and a half dozen of the other,” he commented.

To Saskatchewan’s southwest, Mylo Chubb of Stonehenge Global seeds estimated yields were down 30 to 40 per cent from last year, due to the ongoing drought in the region along with damage caused by grasshoppers.

Meanwhile, Scott Shiels of Grain Millers Canada in Yorkton, Sask. said the conventional and organic oats that has come in were “looking pretty good,” but they weren’t as good as last year’s crop. The barley, lentil and peas were quite decent as well, he noted.