CME April 2023 live cattle (candlesticks, right column) with CME April 2022 feeder cattle (dark red line, left column). (Barchart)

Klassen: Deferred live cattle futures underpin feeder cattle prices

Compared to last week, western Canadian feeder cattle markets traded $2-$4 on either side of unchanged. Major feedlot operations in Alberta continue to carry large numbers of market-ready cattle. The backlog of fed cattle appears to be worse than earlier anticipated. Yearlings were featured at auction barns in the main feeding regions of Alberta. Feedlot […] Read more

(RGtimeline/iStock/Getty Images)

Feed weekly outlook: Sector bracing for logistics challenge

A CP lockout could put feeders weeks behind in supplies

MarketsFarm — Feed grain buyers in Alberta’s feedlot alley are well covered with contracted supplies, but the logistics of getting that grain where it needs to be are facing some uncertainty with looming labour action at Canadian Pacific Railway. Buyers in feedlot alley are about 80 per cent covered right now, said Jim Beusekom of […] Read more


Fall rye flowering in south-central Manitoba. (Allan Dawson photo)

Rye in strong position going into 2022

MarketsFarm — Last summer’s drought sharply reduced yields of many crops across the Prairies, leaving multiple supply challenges and rising prices in the aftermath. Western Canadian rye, however, was largely left unscathed, which may bode well for the crop heading into 2022. Rye production came in at 473,000 tonnes for 2021-22, according to Statistics Canada […] Read more




(Photo courtesy Canada Beef Inc.)

Feed weekly outlook: Prices steady, but changes coming

Feedlots moving to full corn rations

MarketsFarm — With feed barley and wheat supplies on the verge of running out, prices remain firm, according to Mike Fleischhauer of Eagle Commodities in Lethbridge. “They’re on the positive side of stationary,” he said, noting prices could soon change following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. “With what’s going on with Ukraine and […] Read more



A supplied aerial photo of vehicles blocking through traffic on Feb. 1, 2022 at the Canada-U.S. border crossing between Coutts, Alta. and Sweet Grass, Montana. (Photo courtesy Alberta RCMP)

Feed weekly outlook: Alberta blockade affects feed grain deliveries

MarketsFarm — A truck blockade at a Canada-U.S. border crossing at Coutts, Alta. has caused some headaches for grain buyers in southern parts of the province. Since Saturday, commercial trucks and other vehicles have blocked Highway 4, a 103-km stretch which runs from the border to Lethbridge, to protest COVID-19 health measures. On the U.S. […] Read more


Photo: iStock/Getty Images.

Transport strains pile on drought-induced feed shortages

Importing U.S. corn not cheap

Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian farmers say they are just days away from running out of feed for cattle, due to severe drought last summer damaging crops needed to fatten them over winter and transportation bottlenecks. The drought devastated Prairie pastures and has now forced feedlots in Alberta, the main cattle-producing province, to buy more […] Read more