April 2, 2025

Good Day,

Looks like spring is in the air. At least the geese and the crows are back. That is always a good sign. If you live in a Saskatoon/Yorkton line in SK you might not be thinking spring and you did receive a big dump of snow over the weekend. If you live in Brandon like I do you would not be surprised as 9 out of 10 years we get a storm for the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair and guess what this week is.  

On the topic of spring precipitation, I would say from my conversations most of MB and eastern SK have a nice amount of moisture for crop germination. But as always winter cereals and hay or pasture still needs that nice spring rain. So let’s hope it's timely and not excessive.  

Trumps tariffs seem to be the only thing the media can talk about lately. It is getting very annoying. He is just a bully trying to keep his face on TV. But he has certainly caused some hurt in both the commodity and the financial markets. I think things will adjust to the new normal in time and as agreements get worked out the world will move forward. Do I think he wants Canada as a 51st state? Not likely. Who would want our debt and the problems that we have.  

I was fortunate to spend some time in Mexico this winter and the Mexican people have no love lost for the bully to their north. They are struggling just the same as people in Canada are and don’t need more disruption and noise to help their day either. There is a big pushback against the US worldwide. It will be interesting to see if this continues and grows into something significant.  

We have seen yellow peas pull back as both the US and Chinese markets are being impacted. As of today, we are trading under $10 for old crop, I have heard new crop bids as low as $6.50 from line companies. This just tells us that they don’t know what is going on either. We still are seeing producers planning to plant peas. This isn’t surprising as they are a good crop for rotation purposes. And snow, wheat, snow isn’t a very sustainable rotation.  

Oats are a struggle too. Not much interest in new crop as buyers are not sure where they will go with them in the fall. No one wants to have to eat another round of tariffs that could appear out of the blue. We have had some interest at $4.60 picked up in MB for old crop but that bid was filled quickly. Elevators are bidding similar prices but delivered.  

One thing I would like to comment on again, is the importance of good sampling and making sure that your grain meets the specs required in the sale you are shipping to. As an example. We had rye that was tougher than the max allowed. It was shipped by truck to Ontario. The buyer didn’t have to unload the grain but he did with discounts. This premium priced sale was almost lost due to not checking what was being shipped. This is why good information is so important. We can only work with what you tell us. Yes, we can help sort things out but it usually will end up costing you the seller money. It is so easy to visually inspect your sample and see if it makes spec. If you need more detailed specs, just ask us and we will find out what you need to know. Much cheaper than sending samples of grain that have no hope of working for the buyer.  

We have good demand for heated canola, if you are just getting a chance to check your bins and find any issues give us a call.

Till next month,


Richard Chambers
Marketer - Brandon, MB
204-729-1354 - Office
204-761-8320 - Cell
[email protected]