There was a little bit of excitement in pea pricing this week. We had green peas come up to $8.75/bu delivered into certain locations, while yellow have been trading between $7.50-8.00/bu FOB. It is not expected that these prices will hold for very long. Yellow peas are arriving in India from Europe and FSU countries, which is weighing more heavily on prices there, as per a Stat report. With these peas hitting the market, it is hard to say whether India’s prices will keep moving down or not. On the other hand, Canadian and US supplies will be smaller this year, which may offset this. Looking later into the marketing year, specifically for yellow peas, pricing will depend on India’s planting of peas and desi chickpeas. Their pricing may not encourage farmers to plant more peas, but chickpea pricing is still relatively strong. Therefore, if prices strengthen into 2018, it may be modest (weather dependent of course).

About 66% of the Canary seed crop is off as of last Friday. The hot dry weather we had been seeing is slowly fading as fall temperatures and rain roll in. This has delayed many producers in prime canary growing areas for the past few days, but most aren’t worried about getting the rest of the crop in the bin. This coming week looks to provide some decent weather to wrap up canary harvest for the most part.  Prices have been very firm at around 20-21c/lb FOB the farm, as supplies seem to match demand at this point. This has kept the canary market flat and uneventful for the last few weeks. Most buyers are quoting fairly prompt movement on that.

The feed wheat market across the prairies is showing slightly depressed values compared to a month ago, but still relatively strong. It has been consistently trading around $4.50 to $4.75/bu FOB the farm for the majority of the prairies. These values are based on vomitoxin levels under 1 ppm, 58lb bushel weight and dry. If your feed wheat is coming in over 1 ppm to a max of 10, it will likely trade\ around $4.00/bu FOB the farm. What we suggest doing, if you are unclear on your vomi levels, is to go and get a professional grade on them at SGS. As for milling wheat, values have slipped slightly after Fridays release of the USDA report, which increased stocks. Today we still have some buyers indicating $6.50-$6.75/bu delivered, pending movement period. Call your merchant for more information.

The chickpea markets have been a little quieter this week; not quiet in the sense that the market is slipping, but quiet in the sense that the lion’s share of the product has been contracted and things are much harder to find. For those still holding product, bids are still hovering up near 68-70 cents a pound for a #2 quality large kabuli with across the board pricing and picked up in your yard. This is still a huge number and a great opportunity to take advantage of and solve one marketing issue for the year. Many of you will recall that the chickpea markets can be fickle and when bids dry up they can be a tough product to find a home for. If you have your seed needs set up for next year, there has been some new crop contracting in the mid forty range; an excellent price to start 2018 crop marketing. Desi chickpeas have popped up once or twice this week and bids are around 30 cents per pound or slightly better.

While flax prices remain sideways over the last couple of weeks, we could see a bump in prices later in 2017/2018. For now, we are still seeing $12.00/bu picked up for milling quality, while #1 flax is indicated at $11.85 delivered. US flax prices have come up, confirming a smaller crop. European prices moved up slightly, but analysts writing this suggest it could just be a short-term bump due to Russia and Kazakhstan sitting on comfortable supplies. The gap in prices between Europe and Saskatchewan is still too narrow to see fresh trades. While it is too early to have concern, Canadian harvest of flax is behind average. However, once Chinese and US demand firms up, Canadian prices will start to see some strength.

Soybean futures reacted positively to Fridays USDA report and shot up 17 cents from the open. The report was generally friendly for soybean prices with Sept 1st stocks pegged near or below trade expectations. Although soybean stocks are up 53% year over year, they were reported at about 301 million bushels, which was 37 million bushels light of the average pre-report trade guess of 338 million bushels. New crop shipments to China are expected to be delayed a few weeks as exporters search for both quality and quantity due to recent US hurricane damage. China buys 65% of the soybeans that are traded worldwide and they are adequately supplied with recent Brazilian purchases. US soybean harvest was at 22% complete as of Sunday versus 24% this time last year. Local soybean bids are in the $10.00/bu FOB farm range. Old crop faba bean supplies continue to dwindle and for many new crop harvest is just underway. Local faba bean bids are in the $6.00-$6.20/bu FOB farm range.

Barley this week is very similar to last. With corn being a great substitute for barley right now, due to large supplies and cheaper values, we are seeing barley fairly stable. Pricing for Oct/Nov is around $3.50/bu while further out delivery has seen up to $3.75/bu FOB farm depending on freight. On the malt side of things, we are seeing good results coming back with malt samples being accepted. We haven’t been hearing too many attractive bids out there right now. With similar prices for feed and malt barley, some producers have been dumping their malt barley in the feed market to minimize risk of malt coming out of spec. Our malt buyers do want to see samples of product still, so make sure you are getting those to your merchants.

Lentils are having another quiet week with pricing pretty much the same as last.  Buyers are showing some interest in purchasing red lentils at 21-21.5¢/lb FOB farm. Large greens are still trading at 38-39¢/lb for #2 & x2. Small green lentil trades have slowed down, but buyers are offering 32-34¢ on a number #2 and #1 grades.  With lower pricing on spot product, we are starting to have customers order the seed for the upcoming growing season.  We have good supply of certified reds, and limited amount of small green seed.  All seed contracts can have a delivered option add to them if needed.

The oat market is relatively unchanged the past few weeks with strong yields coming in from Manitoba. We are still seeing feed oats around $2.00/bu picked up in the yard depending on location. As for milling oats, bids seem to be spotty with the best prices popping up in southwest Saskatchewan, around $2.50/bu picked up in the yard. Be sure to let us know what you have in case the market takes a quick jump.

Mustard prices have stayed in the same range this week. Strong prices have been the norm after harvest as yields were down in many areas and final reports come in. There have been some great pricing opportunities on mustard especially in the January to February time frame. Brown and yellow mustard are leading the pack with bids now reaching 40 cents/lb for winter movement. Oriental is sitting around 34 cents/lb depending on variety. Quicker movement times are available at slightly reduced prices as well for those who need the bin space and cash flow. We will have certified mustard seed with treatment available again this year. It might be best to secure seed supplies soon as yields, for the most part, are down. Call the office for details on that, as well as any mustard offers on 2018 crop with Act of God.

Canola markets are up slightly today following soybean markets. Over the past few weeks prairie farmers have seen some cool, wet weather with reports of 1-4” of rain. For the most part, these weather events are welcomed as the soil needs to be replenished to grow a crop next year. It has though, in turn, stalled harvest progress in many areas, which is helping to support canola markets. That being said, other than northern areas, most producers have wrapped things up. Today bids sit in the $10.80/bu delivered range after a $0.30/MT bump to $493.40/MT on the November.

Rayglen Commodities Market Comments are for informational purposes only. Rayglen Commodities and its agents or employees shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by any person as a result of reliance on any of the contents contained within these products, whether such loss or damage arises from negligence or misrepresentation or any act or omission of its agents or employees.