Grain Today - June 9, 2023

Good Day,

In my conversations with producers over the last couple of weeks it seems that not many areas are too wet. Or if they are too wet it is very localized. When you ask enough questions, I would say most of the prairies are in decent shape as far as moisture with Southern Alberta being very dry. For the most part crops have emerged decently. So far not a flea beetle plague. Herbicide spraying is general. That is a condensed crop report. It will be interesting to see how the crop progresses this summer.

The last few days have been way above normal temperature wise in Eastern SK and MB. That is going to take regular rain to keep crops coming. No one I talked to said they had a general rain. It has been all thunder showers. In talking to a producer in the Rapid city area he mentioned he had hail twice before he was done seeding. Unfortunately, I think he had golf ball sized hail on Wednesday evening. So, if this continues it will be a crazy summer.

Since we are wrapping up this crop there are a couple of things I would like to touch on that could be important:

First: Make sure you clean your harvest equipment before starting. We have had the odd load of yellow peas rejected because of soybean contamination. Easy to do when you finish last fall in beans and start this fall in peas. It would be a shame to contaminate 5000 bus of peas because the boot in the combine was not checked.

Second: Keep good samples as you unload your grain. I think producers are way better at this than 15 years ago due to having more experience with dealing directly with processors and end users. It is more work but after 18 years of brokering grain I know that accurate information is king.

Third: Please keep representative samples of what you ship. It is pretty hard to argue a grading complaint when we have nothing to back it up with. On the very odd occasion load information gets mixed up or misplaced so a back up sample can be critical.  Also make sure you get a bill of lading from the carrier before he leaves the yard. And preferably don’t leave it in your jeans and have it go through the wash.

Markets have been drifting lower over the last month. Oats are in the tank. Milling and feed oats are at about the same level. Ex) Wawota SK 43 lb, dry, no glyphos, 2 CW oats are $238 as feed and $237 as milling. A $4.00 oat is hard to find, mills are full and there are still bushels in the bins.  Barley has held value fairly well. Feed bids have drifted down in AB vs MB with MB barley still trading at $7.50 to $7.70 depending on where it is located. Malt is a different story; it seems that all the buyers are sitting on their hands at this time. And what we are hearing for new crop is closer to $7 than $8. New crop feed is $6.00. Feed wheat is in short supply because we had generally good harvesting conditions last fall with very little frost damage. With feed wheat costing mills $390 to $400 and barley running at $385 and corn $375 you can see why wheat is not in great demand. If you have some CPS or feed wheat let us know as we still have some demand.

We are always looking for heated or green canola which is trading at decent levels.

New crop yellow peas - $9.50 to $9.75 in southern MB
Feed oats - $3.40 to $3.65 depending on test weight/location
Feed wheat - $10.00 in MB
Feed barley - $7.50 to $7.75 in MB slightly higher in SK and AB (8.75 delivered to feedlots around Lethbridge)

We have mentioned it before, but, more and more of our buyers are offering Electronic Transfer of funds. We are promoting this as Canada Post does not always make a good job of getting you your money. Our buyers will put the money in your account, send you a notification that this is happening by email or text and send you a statement with your unloads.

That is it for this month. As always, give us a call if you have grain to market. We can kick tires much more effectively then you can as we work closely with 45 different buyers. Even at 5 minutes a call that will take you a while. And if you get offers of a “great” deal from one of your local buyers just send us a text and we will let you know if it is or is not.

Till next month,



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