Our online grain markets columnist Brian Wittal welcomes feedback and information on market conditions in your area, such as current offering prices, basis levels, trucking premiums and special crops contracts. Contact Brian today.
May 26 — Financial markets showed good strength today with solid gains that helped to set the tone for the markets.
The Canadian dollar fell almost a full cent early but then was able to rebound from those lows to post a gain on the day.
Beans finished up for the day from weather concerns and strong weekly export shipment numbers for last week.
Corn was slightly positive today as weekly export numbers were down but weather delays are continuing to support prices for now.
Wheat futures struggled to get going but found strength when weekly export numbers came in above pre-report estimates. Add to that the weather delays and you have strong support at current levels.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s crop progress reports came out showing that seeding has progressed and is nearing last year’s levels but is still below the five-year average.
U.S. crop progress (in percentage of acres completed)
| Crop | May 24, 2009 | May 24, 2008 | 5-year average |
| Corn | 82 | 86 | 93 |
| Beans | 48 | 49 | 65 |
| Wheat | 79 | 97 | 95 |
The Dow Jones June quote closed up 201 points today at 8,461. The Canadian dollar was up 0.19 cents today to close at US89.47 cents.
Crude oil finished up 78 cents, closing at US$62.45 per barrel for the day.
Corn finished down three to up two cents per bushel today, while beans finished up nine to 20 cents per bushel today. Wheat finished even to up 10 cents per bushel on the various U.S. exchanges today.
Minneapolis July wheat futures finished up 9.6 cents per bushel today.
Canola finished down $1 to $9 per tonne for the day. Barley finished up $1.30 to close at $156.10 per tonne.
Canola is seeing the lack of demand and the increase in producer deliveries starting to have some effects on futures values as the Canadian dollar continues to climb.
There are calls for rains the next few days throughout the U.S. Northern plains region that will continue to delay seeding, and markets on edge as the seeding window closes. Will acres be swapped over to other crops or will they not get seeded at all?
That’s all for today. — Brian
— Brian Wittal has spent over 27 years in the grain industry, including as an elevator manager and producer services representative for Alberta Wheat Pool, a regional sales manager for AgPro Grain and farm business representative for the Canadian Wheat Board, where he helped design some of the new pricing programs. He also operates his own company providing marketing and risk management advice for Prairie grain producers. Brian’s daily commentaries focus on how domestic and world market conditions affect you directly as grain producers.
