January 7, 2025

Good Day,


WOW. Another year gone and we are all still here. Struggling along trying to make sense out of the markets. Trying to give some direction to producers when they ask where we see markets going…. on that note. Our advice is possibly only worth what you pay for it. We still want to talk to you so don’t stop reaching out.


I feel that this coming year is going to be an interesting one. With Trump taking over. Tariffs maybe, maybe not. Trudeau taking a knee. All I can say to that is about time!!! The world seems to think it is a good thing for Canada as the loonie has gone up for the first time in a while. As you all know this won’t make our wheat become worth a fortune but let’s hope it stabilizes things a bit.


On the tariff note we have buyers who are shipping your grain south putting a clause in their contracts that will protect them from any tariff that is put in place. Unfortunately, there really isn’t any way to protect yourselves from this happening other than shipping your grain before any tariffs are in place.  It’s impossible to know with Trump whether the tariffs are an idle threat or if they will happen immediately. If he does half the things with executive orders that he has threatened, things will be a shit show for sure.


A little admin thing that has come along thanks to the Canada postal strike. We have been receiving cheques that were dated in early November in the last few days - thanks for the payments. Seems like another step forward for the postal system working through the backlog. On a similar topic - we found that Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT) to get our producers paid worked so well that we are going to encourage everyone to go that route. It has always been faster and this last strike just confirmed it is the way to go. So don’t be surprised when we ask for void cheques. If you are comfortable with us keeping yours on file just let Reed know and then we can move things along quicker.


I know many producers I talked to in Nov and Dec were going to wait and see what Jan Feb did to the prices. So far we have only seen a few days of Jan but so far prices aren’t any better. Here in MB we are still finding bids around $5 picked up for feed barley. But no buyer seems to be short and paying up. Maybe if we get 6 weeks of cold weather that will help but that doesn’t look like the trend that is coming.


Yellow peas are another interesting crop. We had $11 FOB farm when there was talk of offshore buyers. That seems to have quieted down and now the peas would have to be soy, corn and preharvest glypho free to get those prices. For a dry, #2 Yellow Peas are more like $10.25-$10.50 now. FYI I am talking about MB and eastern SK with these prices. Who knows where prices and demand will go in the future but at this point it seems unlikely we will see anywhere close to the $13 prices from last year.


Anyone thinking about new crop prices for barley, oats or peas reach out as we have had some interest from our buyers. We like to help kick tires as it lets us know which buyers are seriously looking and which are blowing smoke.


As a reminder if you haven’t checked your bins recently with this mild weather coming up it might be a good idea to pull a load to confirm that all is as it should be. Please do. We have seen many times the first load comes out spoiled, tough, heated, or has bugs. This isn’t just canola. We are seeing a pickup in demand for off conditioned/heated canola so don’t be shy to give us a call if you are having problems.


With the volatility in the grain markets expected to continue it is always a good idea to consider shopping around for old and new crop prices. We are very happy to help you with that. If you would like us to help, just call, text or email one of our brokers and let them know what you are considering.
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That’s it for this month. Until next month stay safe and don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions or comments (positive or negative - feedback helps us improve).



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