Grain Today - January 2022

Good day,


Well, another year is behind us. For some producers it has been a bumpy ride with drought conditions limiting yields. Other areas of the prairies have been very fortunate with good yields and record high prices. Anyone who is not satisfied with these price levels may need to sharpen their pencils. As we all have seen before, a stretch of high prices leads to greater production which takes care of the high prices. I would suggest that a person keep that in mind as we are in the run up to seeding. Keep in mind the old Wall Street saying when it comes to marketing your crops. “Bulls make money, Bears make money and Hogs get slaughtered!!!”


Speaking of new crop prices. There has been more interest from producers regarding new crop prices. We have been seeing oats trading in the $6.70 to $7.00 FOB farm for Aug/Sept/Oct movement. We just had a buyer offer $6.70 picked up for new crop barley with Sept movement. That is in SE SK. This buyer is looking for Eastern SK and MB barley. Price depends on location. I don’t usually push any marketing plan but personally if I was seeding oats (as half of western Canada is) I would want to have some of my production priced. Oats are even more attractive with fertilizer prices where they are.


One thing I would suggest to anyone with bins that haven’t had a load or 2 pulled from. Check the tops!! In the last 3 weeks we have had 4 different lots of malt barley rejected for rusty grain beetles present in the loads. Most malt buyers have 0 tolerance for bugs and I know some feed mills lose their minds if bugs are found in the sample. Might be a good idea to give a bit more money to your electric utility and freeze that bin down.


We are still seeing strong prices for most grains. Brown flax has dropped off its highs with most bids below $40/bus. (Manitoba and Eastern SK price) Yellow peas in a good freight location are still worth $18 picked up but for further out (spring movement). If you had to move them in Jan, you would likely give up at least a buck. Feed barley is still strong at $9 to $9.10 picked up which is impressive as we have traded corn delivered to south east SK for $9.75/bus. That is 385/MT for corn vs $415/MT for barley. Barley is landing in Lethbridge at $9.60 and seeing corn land at $10.50/bus ($440 barley vs $410 corn). Feed wheat is $11.00 to $11.50. Milling oats without glyphos are in the $8.00 to $9.00 depending on location and timeframe. Best prices are for April on. We are still seeing strong demand for heated canola, but movement is a bit further out as well. Truck availability is a big part of the issue.




Just a note on that subject. I have a feedlot who has bought corn screenings from the US. The trucking outfit that was to haul them is down to 25% of their drivers who can cross the US/Canada border because they aren’t vaccinated. This shortage of drivers for north south routes has driven freight up by 50% and reduced the availability to a trickle. It seems that Covid is the gift that keeps on giving. It sounds as though the latest variant is maybe going to be a good thing. We are all going to get it and then maybe Big Brother can get his nose out of our business and let us get on with living our lives as we see fit.


That was my last rant for this month. Stay safe, check your bins and don’t get frozen solid. And as always call, tx or email if you need to check and see if the price you found is great or not. That is a big part of what we do for free at Quality Grain.


Until next month,





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