Grain Today - july 11 2023

Good Day,

Hello from Brandon. Since I composed last months’ epistle, things have changed in the markets. Will it be the new trend or is it just a weather scare? Your guess is as good as mine. The feeling we are getting from producers across the prairies is that the general soil condition is dry. Some areas would be classified as in drought. As you all know, even if we get a general rain the crop is set, and a rain would just hold it.


If you have a good crop well along you should be thinking about pricing some of it at harvest or shortly after. If it is dry, 7 years out of 10 we see the best prices within 60 days of harvest. Just because feed barley is $8.00 as buyers try to cover positions in September, this doesn’t guarantee that it will be $9 in Jan. By that time feed grain users will have found the cheapest feed they can which could put a lid on barley at $8.00.


One little thing that would really make us more efficient and more helpful to you would be when you call us. Unless it is just to pick our brain - leave a message please, with some detail. Then we can call you back with either prices or the information on the trade you called about. We are not mind readers and sometimes a call with no message never gets returned.


Thanks in advance from the Quality Grain team.


This year we have many producers that have contracted new crop grain with us, and I have 2 things I think might be worth mentioning. First – if you think/ know already you will be short and don’t have an AoG clause, contact your broker and we will work with you and the buyer to come to a resolution of the shortage. When it is early the buyer can still cover his sales and it will not cost you near as much. Second – you have a crop that will go to harvest please make sure you retain accurate samples and get a sample to the buyer immediately. Even if it was harvested tough and is on air. This way you will be at the top of the line for shipment, and you will know if there are issues that might affect the price. Too often we have a producer call in October and ask when will my contracted grain move? When we ask if the buyer got the sample all too often, we hear that the sample is still in the shop. Really slows things up.


We have had more interest in old crop oats and new crop barley this week than we had in the 2 months before. Makes me think the buyers are all feeling that it could be a short crop. As an example -we traded 245g/.5l dry oats for $4.00 picked up 2 weeks ago, yesterday we traded (same quality in same general area Brandon MB) for $4.65. New crop barley in MB has gone from $6.25 to $7.25 picked up Aug/Sept in the same time frame. You be the judge.


The past couple years we have seen a jam of new crop being sold directly off combine and contracts dragging on longer than the delivery time frame has dictated. If you are marketing your grain off combine for cash flow reasons let us know which crops you have available and we can help you pick and choose which crops to go with to get cash in hand the quickest. We can also look at negotiating in storage fees to get the contract cleaned up or at least get you some more money if it does drag on longer than expected.


One last note, Quality Grain Marketing will be co-hosting a Happy Hour on Tuesday August 1st at AgSmart in Olds AB. Combyne, Farmbucks, and Quality Grain will have representatives speaking and networking from 4:30-6:30 PM at Our Flames Restaurant and Lounge. To get tickets to the event please follow this link to Eventbrite and reserve a spot.


That is about it for this month. Enjoy the bit of a lull before harvest hits full swing, take the kids to the lake. Go fishing and enjoy our Canadian summer.

Till next month,



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