Higher Demand Projected for Feed Supplies

CANADA - A Winnipeg based grain market analyst anticipates an increased demand, both domestically and internationally, for Canadian feed grains this year as the result of reduced production in other regions, writes Bruce Cochrane.
calendar icon 9 September 2010
clock icon 3 minute read

Higher than normal rainfall has reduced the number of acres planted this year in western Canada and resulted in extremely variable quality expectations.

Chuck Penner, the president of LeftField Commodity Research, notes the latest Statistics Canada acreage, production and yield estimates indicate the number of unseeded acres has been less than earlier projected and recent harvest delays will likely result in more cereals, pulses and other crops coming off as feed.

Chuck Penner-LeftField Commodity Research

Thee big news of course was the drought in Russia which spread into Ukraine as well too and the exports bans on grains coming out of those areas provided a real shot in the arm to markets on the milling grain side and probably even more so on the feed side and that spread over into their corn production as well and it looks like those estimates are continuing to come down.

That's really caused a lot of the big spike in terms of what we've seen in the feed markets.

The effect that that has is it will probably add to the demand for Canadian feed grains in a way that we haven't seen for a number of years.

For example on the feed barley side the Wheat Board I think is getting a fair amount of interest in feed barley from various destinations and we may even see some other feed supplies move, possibly some feed wheats, possibly even some feed peas and things like that move out of the situation too.

It is going to be a bit of a balance, not just larger domestic supplies but we should see larger exports of those as well too.


While Mr Penner expects aggressive competition for Canadian feed grains he doubts feed supplies will be that tight this year because of the lower grade spread we're starting to experience now.

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