GrainsWest Fall 2020

Fall 2020 grainswest.com 23 there’s an excess. It’s a way to keep an appropriate number flowing but as well help the feeders.” The second component of the program is for fed cattle and features a weekly bidding process that a producer may choose to participate in. The section has $30 million in its coffers and can operate until March 31, 2021, or until fully subscribed, whichever comes first. Following the set-aside announcement, prices quickly shot back up past $1.30. “If everything proceeds the way it’s going and prices stay up, that’s going to be a positive for our industry, but if they don’t and we run out of the money and people panic, that’s not good,” she said. “If we get a second wave of COVID, and processors go down, that’s not going to be good.” Many believe that second wave of coronavirus will likely hit this fall, which may spell less buying and selling, pinning feeders down with animals they must keep until packers are ready, meaning more feed grains will be required. The 2020 barley carry-in stocks were just under one million tonnes, but this year’s crop will double that number to 1.6 million tonnes, according to Mike Stapleton, a senior broker with Ag Value Group in Calgary. There were 7.5 million acres of barley seeded this year, virtually unchanged from 2019 and the highest in 11 years. Decent barley prices helped usher about 50,000 tonnes of corn into southern Alberta between July and August, mostly because of its $15 to $20 per tonne discount. “Think about 10,000 tonnes of grain; if you’re saving $15 per tonne, that’s $150,000 and some of these big feeders would go through 10,000 tonnes in a month,” he said. It won’t be entirely clear what the feed grain market will do domestically until the quality of the malt and wheat crop are known, he admitted. Stapleton also said the suspected increase in trading due to coronavirus fears never really materialized between April and June. The broker believed this may have been related to animals simply being put onto a less intensive maintenance diet or direct feed buying from Montana, which he estimated was between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes between June 9 and July 9. “If we get a second wave of COVID, and processors go down, that’s not going to be good.” —Janice Tranberg KCL Cattle Co. owner and operations manager Jared Clark examines the feedlot’s barley supply.