Values Move Lower as Crop Quality Improves

The last seven days have brought a mixed week to the grain markets. Milder winds, warmer temperatures and a remarkable bank holiday weekend of sunshine have all benefited both winter and spring sown crops; the above has however begun to slightly weaken new crop values.

Harvest movement would probably still make £170/T ex-farm for many growers (depending on quality specification and farm location), whilst November collection would make somewhere around the £174-177/T ex-farm mark. Values are still at a pre-harvest all-time high, but remain firmly below the mighty £180/T ex-farm available a little more than three weeks ago.

Wider Europe has also experienced a better out look over the past seven days. Milder temperatures have been welcome in both Northern France and Western Germany, whilst a drier outlook for southern areas has allowed for spring plantings to progress at a steady pace. A drop of rain wouldn’t exactly go a miss here and (fingers crossed) there is some due towards the end of this week.

As for old crop values, feed wheat is barely making £200/T delivered for those of you looking for that sort of money at the farm gate. Current ex-farm values for spot collection are in the early £190’s/T, whilst movement further forward should in theory offer around a couple of pounds per tonne more. Feed barley is currently trading at a £12-15/T discount to feed wheat.

As for anything with quality, biscuit wheats are valued in the high £190’s/T ex-farm (very few varieties would make £200/T ex-farm), whilst bread making wheats would have to be priced accordingly. End-user demand continues to be thin as good quality wheat imports (particularly those from Eastern Europe) continue at a record pace. Movement is also slow from the farm as many millers opt to use the above instead of our home-grown crops.

Looking further afield, concern is beginning to emerge for the delay to maize corn plantings in south-western America. Although the recent rains have proved beneficial to ‘suffering’ winter wheat crops there, they are seriously beginning to hamper sowing progress.

As it stands, maize corn plantings are currently around 12% complete; well behind the average 47% we would expect at this stage in the season. A drier outlook is forecast for the week ahead in some western regions, but concerns remain for areas in the far south.

The above has insofar done little to rally our equivalent feed wheat values, but remains a prominent concern. Another week of the same and we may just begin to see values improve.

Elsewhere, OSR values are little unchanged this week. Old crop for spot collection would make somewhere around £370/T ex-farm, whilst new crop is valued around £345/T ex-farm for movement off the combine.

Limited quantities of overyeared OSR seed is now available to order via the office (details below). With guaranteed delivery to your farm by the 19th of July and payment delayed until mid-December, don’t be caught waiting for seed deliveries following what could potentially be a rather late harvest.


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