Canada: Feed barley bids holding relatively steady in Western Canada

Feed barley bids are holding relatively steady in Western Canada, showing little movement over the past month as end users await the new crop amid relatively favourable growing conditions, Canadian Cattlemen reported on June 13.

Drought fears had encouraged some demand earlier in the year, but “now that those fears have been alleviated, (buyers) are starting to dig in,” according to a newsletter from Alberta grain brokers Agfinity, noting that while it is still early in the growing season “projections for this year’s crop are sound in most areas.”

Agfinity noted that new crop pricing is starting to become available at levels lower than old crop prices.

The monthly grains update from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, released June 12, estimated Canadian barley production in 2024/25 at 9.6 million tonnes. That compares with the 8.9 million tonnes grown the previous year and would be about 100,000 tonnes above Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s current projection.

The USDA sees Canadian exports hitting 2.4 million tonnes in 2024/25, which would be up only slightly from the 2.3 million tonnes it expects for the current marketing year. However, with a larger domestic crop, the USDA forecasts Canadian domestic barley usage will rise to 7.4 million tonnes from only 6.5 million in 2023/24.

With more barley being fed domestically, the USDA expects Canadian corn imports will be cut by about a million tonnes on the year, to 2.2 million.

Corn bids in the key livestock feeding area of Lethbridge topped out at about C$308 per tonne during the week of June 3, which was down by about C$6 per tonne from the previous week, according to the provincial government’s weekly market review. Meanwhile, feed barley bids held steady, ranging from C$295 to C$300 per tonne.

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