July 20, 2010

US corn seen to drive feed costs up

A Winnipeg-based grain market analyst expects US corn to play a key role in influencing the cost of feeding livestock heading into the fall and winter this year.
 

Due to the unusually wet spring in the range of 10 million acres of cropland across the prairies have been left unseeded this year which will result in reduced availability of Canadian feed grains.

Analysts said the continued rain and high humidifies are starting to raise concerns among livestock producers related to fusarium while delayed crop development raises the risk of damage from an early frost.

The analysts also noted that because the US corn crop looks to be in good shape, the situation on the Canadian side of the border has had a limited impact on prices so far.

In addition, cereal grain prices have increased by five and in some cases up to ten dollars a ton which is a pretty small response to the whole issue of unseeded acres, analysts said.