GRAIN growers who stored large parcels of wheat after harvest have been selling some small portions over the past few months.
Many of these growers still have the majority of their production unsold and are feeling the pain of selling at the lowest price of the season.
While the stockfeed wheat market is quoted at $190-$195 a tonne delivered to Melbourne, growers are reluctant to sell below the price equivalent of $200 a tonne.
Many stockfeed mills have already purchased their immediate needs, but demand for the high-energy wheat is increasing.
The expanding difference between the falling grain price and the rising price of milk makes wheat more feasible in dairy rations.
Talk of some freezing temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma have pushed values up in the US futures markets, but a flat world-demand and high Aussie dollar have kept the Australian wheat futures down.
Prices for feed barley are now below $120 a tonne ex farm in the Wimmera.
Feed barley prices have remained stable over the past month, but have fallen $5 a tonne on a delivered-to-Melbourne basis since harvest and values on farm have fallen as much as $15 a tonne.
The international market has been actively buying wheat. Australian wheat is expected to be a chance in a large tender for 550,000 tonnes of optional origin wheat to be shipped to Saudi Arabia this year.
Tenders closed last Friday but traders expect German, Canadian and Australian wheat to be the most competitive.
Russian and Canadian wheat have taken the lion's share of the business into Iraq recently.
After three years of no exports, Pakistan is expected to export two million tonnes of wheat this season due to a favourable season.
In a few months, they will be competing with new crop wheat from the Black Sea region which is fast becoming the world benchmark for wheat pricing.
Lupins are trading in a flat price pattern. The competitively priced canola meal continues to be the protein source of choice for feed compounders.
Demand for lupins has been subdued and this is the first year in the last five when lupins have not been imported in volume from Western Australia.
Many growers are looking forward to a better year. Rain has produced the best start for new crop grains in the eastern portions of Australia for years. Large areas of canola are expected to be sown in the Wimmera and Western Districts.
The area sown to canola and pulses in the Mallee is also expected to expand.
