As feedlots reduce their cattle numbers, demand for feed grains has declined on the Canadian Prairies, according to Market Place Commodities trader Allen Pirness at Lethbridge.
“It’s a pretty calm time of year. The feedlots are shipping a lot of fat cattle more than they are replacing. Their grain consumption drops off a little bit in February,” he said.
With nothing major happening that would get the feed grain market excited, there has been little to influence wheat and barley prices either way, he said.
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Corn is in a somewhat different situation; imports from the U.S. have become more expensive as the Canadian dollar has been declining, he said.
The Canadian dollar was recently above the 76-U.S. cent mark and has lost about two-thirds of a cent so far this week. As of Thursday morning the loonie was at 75.27 U.S. cents.
Concerns of a global economic slowdown have been the root cause of declines on stock markets, according to media reports. In turn, those worries have weakened the loonie’s value.
Nevertheless, U.S. corn imports are expected to continue through the crop year, Pirness said.
“We’ll see what next year brings. It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw it continue into next year,” he said.
On the flipside, he added, a weaker dollar is supportive of Canadian exports.
— Glen Hallick writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.
