Feed weekly outlook: Prices strong, beginning to stabilize

MarketsFarm — Feed grain bids in Western Canada have shown some strength over the past month, but were stabilizing in early December as corn imports pick up from the U.S.

Erin Harakal, trade manager at Agfinity Inc. at Stony Plain, Alta., said prices have been strong over the past month but steady over the past few days.

“Seeing lots of corn getting booked into Lethbridge is one of the reasons we’ve seen prices pull back a little bit here,” she said, adding corn has been priced between $390 and $398/tonne. “We’ve seen buyers come up waiting to see what that does.”

Alberta feed barley as of Wednesday had only moved up two cents per bushel over the past week, but increased 39 cents over the past month for a high-delivered bid of $9.80/bu., according to Prairie Ag Hotwire.

Feed wheat in Alberta and Manitoba had high-delivered bids of $12.93 per bushel and $11.39/bu., increases of 54 and 45 cents respectively, over the past week according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Saskatchewan feed wheat held steady at $11/bu.

“Prices could stay at these levels over the next little bit,” Harakal said.

Flooding in B.C., which closed rail lines going in and out of ports, as well as the newly-identified Omicron COVID-19 variant, did not have any effect on local feed grain markets, she added.

“Going into feedlots and more local markets within Alberta, we haven’t seen (any effects) right now,” Harakal said.

“They have affected more graded markets, especially the new variant that has popped up… but it hasn’t affected the feed grains as of yet. None of those have (had an effect).”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.