North America: Barley harvest finishing up and rated on average as good

Barley harvest in Canada is finishing up, with Saskatchewan and Alberta at 95% complete, RMI Analytics said in their late September report.

Yields and quality are on average rated as good, some high proteins and lower plumps in the south, but better in the more northern regions, industry sources report.

Canada’s barley production is forecast by RMI at 9.9 mln tonnes.

The USA harvest delivered a generally good crop at 3.54 mln tonnes but with isolated quality challenges (drought in Montana and rain at harvest in Wyoming).

Canadian malting barley are slightly down as traders try to push export volume and domestic end-users work to complete selections.

The barley pipeline has been refilled as harvest comes to a close and is indicated by heavy discounts for ‘off the combine’ feed purchases while the storage network fills.

Feed barley is CAD375/tonne for O/N delivery to Lethbridge (+CAD25/tonne) while imported US corn is uncompetitive at CAD430 delivered southern Alberta.

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