The Rural Voice, 1991-03, Page 22AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS
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16 THE RURAL VOICE
GRAIN MARKETS
the slow exports and a slight increase
in 1991 acreage, it will take a fairly
major weather scare to rally the
futures market.
In Ontario, soybean crush has been
lagging compared to last year, and
there are still very large stocks sitting
out in elevators. As I've said before,
with the large crop grown in 1991, a
reduced crush and a strong Canadian
dollar, basis levels should weaken af-
ter the open of navigation. Presently,
basis levels are well above export, and
in order to offset the imports that one
crusher is making, basis may have to
fall back to export price to generate
some activity. Over the past six
weeks, basis has been held up by light
producer selling and, as is the case
with corn, the marketing period is get-
ting shorter, and we could have large
quantities of soybeans looking for a
market at the same time. Today, ele-
vators are paying 41 cents over March
for old crop, and 35 cents over
November.
My thoughts arc to sell soybeans
soon, and buy back futures or call
options or at the very least, sell on a
basis contract with hopes of picking
some gain in the futures.
FEED GRAINS
Western feed grain prices dropped
after the announcement of the GRIP
due to start this spring. As a result,
there has been a softening of Ontario
feed grain prices, and it seems that
more barley and mixed grain are being
offered.
Barley prices have dropped slightly
to the $105 to $108 per metric tonne
(mt) range, mixed grain is trading for
under $100/mt and good quality oats
are around $95/mt. Even though
stocks of western grains at bayports
are quite low, rail grains are beginning
to arrive in Ontario. With Canadian
stocks of grain much higher than the
past two years, I don't see any
potential strength in feed grains even
though there should be reasonably
good usage given some toxin prob-
lems in corn.
As I've often said, when an
opportunity of a decent price is
presented, take advantage of it.0
Information supplied by Dave Gordon,
LAC, Inc., Ilyde Park, 519-473-9333.