Feed weekly outlook: Prairie wheat, barley prices still look good

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: January 31, 2019

,

Barley. (Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Prices for feed wheat and barley in Western Canada are doing pretty good, according to Nelson Neumann of Agfinity in Edmonton.

Feed wheat is up to $6 per bushel in the Edmonton area and about $250 per tonne in the Lethbridge area, he said.

Feed barley was still quite strong, although the price had softened up a bit, he said. “At the moment we’re at the mid- to high $250s per tonne range into Lethbridge.”

There are still good amounts of corn being imported from the U.S., he said. However, much of what’s coming north into Canada has already been bought.

Read Also

The USDA and AAFC differ on Canada’s canola ending stocks for 2025/26, while an analyst says both agencies are wrong. Photo: Greg Berg

Large gap in canola ending stocks between AAFC, USDA

There’s a 760,000-tonne difference in the ending stocks for Canada’s 2025/26 canola crop respectively estimated by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the United States Department of Agriculture. Aside from that, the canola data from AAFC and the USDA remain quite similar.

“I’m not too sure how much is getting bought for the future.”

Corn imports from the U.S. to Canada totaled 164,600 tonnes for the week of Jan. 14-20, according to the most current data from the Canadian Grain Commission. That was approximately 10 per cent more than the previous week.

Corn imports have been increasing so far this year. At the end of December about 143,000 tonnes of corn came into Canada, which increased to 149,700 tonnes after the first week of January and then to 154,000 tonnes the second week.

Feedlots, such as those in Feedlot Alley around Lethbridge, are still full with cattle, although numbers might be down slightly, Neumann said.

— Glen Hallick writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.

About the author

GFM Network News

GFM Network News

Glacier FarmMedia Feed

Glacier FarmMedia, a division of Glacier Media, is Canada's largest publisher of agricultural news in print and online.

explore

Stories from our other publications