WINNIPEG – Feed grain prices for feedlot alley in Lethbridge, Alta. took a tumble after parts of the Prairies received some much-needed rain.

Jim Beusekom, president of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge, said barley and wheat prices recently dropped.

Barley was around C$285 to C$290 per tonne in the local area, down about $10 from the week ending June 21. Wheat was about C$265 per tonne, down C$10 to C$15 per tonne.

“Two inches of rain will do that,” he commented.

Beusekom also noted that feedlots were very well covered for new crop. In turn, that usually generates two things.

One, sellers and farmers want to move their last bit of old crop inventory they were hanging on to. Two, the feedlots will pullback their bids when more grain has become available.

New crop prices for Lethbridge were about C$235 to C$240 per tonne for barley, and wheat was around C$230 to C$235 per tonne, Beusekom said.

For the week ending June 23, approximately 19,500 tonnes of feed grains were delivered by Western Canadian farmers, according to the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC). Of that, 16,300 tonnes was wheat, with the vast majority of it from Alberta and Saskatchewan followed by British Columbia and Manitoba. About 3,200 tonnes of barley came from the three Prairies provinces.

The CGC also indicated that 12,800 tonnes of feed corn was imported from the United States into the commercial pipeline that week.