GRAIN markets have sustained the positive momentum and prices have moved forward again this week.
Export prices have pushed domestic wheat and barley prices to their highest levels this year.
Wheat for stockfeed priced to Melbourne is up to $220 a tonne this week, $8 a tonne more than last week.
The F1 feed barley price for prompt delivery is also $10 a tonne higher.
The F1 barley price into all three Victorian ports is $172 a tonne this week.
International pressures have now pushed stockfeed producers in Melbourne to pay as much as $180 a tonne delivered to the mill for F1 barley. The lift in prices has surprised many in the grain market.
The harvest of northern hemisphere cereal crops is now in the final stages and is progressing without damage from rain.
Price moves have centred on Russia, the source of the world's cheapest wheat. Hot, dry weather in the southern and eastern regions of Russia has stemmed the flow of cheap wheat and barley.
There is a view that the Russian leadership may suspend grain sales to ensure its own domestic supplies are met.
Without this supply being readily offered in the market, and with many wheat importers caught with only small levels of supply, markets have been quick to respond.
Markets in France and Germany are trading at levels not seen for more than 13 months.
US grain markets have responded, catching up with issues foreign to their normal domestic focus.
Sellers of grain in Victoria also have been very wary of these changes and are reluctant to sell cheaply.
Stocks of grain are reducing and large offerings are difficult to buy.
As the main sector of the grain market yet to purchase all their grain needs, stockfeed buyers have had little option other than to follow the prices up.
Few could have predicted that prices would lift as much as $15 a tonne in two weeks.
Stockfeed mills are finding that the compound feed market is yet to mirror the changes to grain markets.
Feed sales to farmers remain very competitive with few changes to the price of mixed feeds to dairy farmers.
The outlook for new-crop grains and oilseeds appears brighter.
Southeastern Australia has been blessed with good falls of rain over the past three weeks.
Many growers are unable to control weeds due to wet conditions. Canola crops throughout western Victoria are established and covering over well.
New-crop canola prices were more than $510 a tonne on Monday, the highest price for more than 12 months.
International prices for oilseeds have been pushed along by surging sales of US soybeans and fears that a lack of rainfall will not compensate for hot weather.
