USA: Malting barley prices constant, feed barley values receive support from the January USDA Feed Outlook

Feed barley prices received a little support from the January USDA Feed Outlook that raised total barley use by 5 million bushels to 225 million. This increase in use comes largely from a 5 million bushel increase in the feed and residual use forecast, which now stands at 60 million bushels. This increase mainly stems from an estimated escalation in first and second quarter barley feeding, Farm & Ranch Guide reported on January, 30.

Total supplies for the 2012/13 marketing year were left at 300 million bushels and as a result the ending stocks estimate was shrunk by 5 million bushels to 75 million bushels to account for the increase feed usage.

When looking at the USDA estimated barley prices at the farm gate for the current marketing year, lower malting barley prices worked to reduce the average all-barley farm price by $0.05 at the midpoint to $6.40 per bushel. The price range for barley narrowed by $0.10 on the high end to $6.70 per bushel, while the bottom end of the range remained unchanged at $6.10 a bushel.

Planted acreage in North Dakota is expected to decline this year, according to Steve Edwardson, executive director of the North Dakota Barley Council. He made that prediction during a session at the Lake Region Extension Roundup earlier this month in Devils Lake.

"We are thinking acreage in the state will be somewhere in the 700,000 to 950,000 acre range," he said. "We don't think we can top a million acres this year."

He noted that there was a good barley crop in 2012 and the maltsters still have a good supply to work from. Therefore the amount of acres contracted for 2013 was generally down in most cases.

"That reduction in contracted acres is one of the reasons why we feel total barley acres planted this year will be down," he said. "One of the wild cards out there right now is the amount of soybean acres that continue to push north and west. We are starting to see some 30 to 40 bushel soybean yields starting to happen along the Canadian border and that's turning some heads."

Feed barley export trade remains very quiet with no sales reported during the last two weeks. The previously mentioned USDA Feed Outlook pegs feed barley exports at 10 million bushels for this marketing year, compared to 9 million during the last marketing year.

This past week the American Malting Barley Association, Inc. (AMBA) released the 2013 list of recommend malting varieties. No barley varieties have been dropped from the 2012 list and three two-rowed varieties were added to the list. The six-row varieties for 2013 include: Celebration, Lacey, Legacy, Quest, Robust, Stellar-ND, and Tradition. Approved two-row varieties include: AC Metcalfe, CDC Copeland, CDC Meredith, Charles, Conlon, Conrad, Expedition, Harrington, Hockett, Merit, Merit 57, Moravian 37, Moravian 69, Pinnacle, Scarlett, and Wintmalt.

Cash malting barley prices remained constant over the last two weeks at $6 per bushel. However, feed barley cash prices moved a nickel higher and were averaging around $4.65 in the region.

01 February, 2013