USA: Barley prices hardly move at all

There has been very little price movement in the barley markets of late, Farm & Ranch Guide reported earlier this week.

“Prices have hardly moved at all – changes have been within a dime,” was the way Sun Prairie Grain’s Kayla Burkhart described the latest movement in the feed and malting barley markets.

The only big change is rail movement for malting barley has vastly improved, and the maltsters are now calling for barley shipments, but the farmers are busy with spring’s work and don’t have time to haul the grain in from the farm.

This is the complete opposite from a couple months ago, when the farmers were wanting to move grain, but couldn’t due to rail congestion and the maltsters not wanting to take in the barley.

Burkhart wasn’t surprised by the March planting intentions report that indicated barley acreage will be down in North Dakota.

“The maltsters had reduced the number of contracted acres for this year and there isn’t much barley grown that isn’t contracted anymore,” she said. “There’s a few that do it, but they have to wait longer on delivery at times because the contracted grain has priority on delivery, but it’s usually not hard to find a price.”

As far as this year’s crop, growers are making good progress in getting the contracted barley crop in the ground, she reported. The exception to that is up around the Mohall area in north central North Dakota, where too much soil moisture is again challenging growers there. This is the third year in a row that they have had too much soil moisture.

However, areas south and west of Minot haven’t been nearly as wet this spring and most of the barley has been planted at this time.

“Our biggest barley growing area is also our wettest area,” she said. “The growers in that area are thinking they might get about 70 percent of their contracted acres in, if they are lucky. They might touch 100 percent of their fields, but only get 70 percent of their acres seeded, since they would have to seed around quite a bit of water.”

What growers aren’t able to get planted is covered under the Act of God clause in their contract with the maltsters.

Burkhart noted that some varieties of seed were in somewhat short supply this spring, making it a little difficult for those farmers wanting to plant that variety. There were some growers who are planting some two-row barley varieties.

“We offered both two- and six-row contracts this year, and the six-row contracts sold out first,” she said. “But we have some that are moving to two-row varieties.”

Demand for feed barley has been steady, although weakening corn prices in the southern plains has increased the usage of corn in feedlot operations. Also, there doesn’t seem to be much export activity. Putting these two things together has meant little movement in the feed barley market.

As mentioned earlier, there has been little movement in barley prices. Cash board prices at local elevators for feed barley was in the $3.25 range, while spot cash malting barley prices average around $4.25.

04 June, 2014