GROWERS' frustration with low grain prices means many are happy to wait for a lift in the market before selling further grain.
Each year is different and this time last year growers were enjoying a spike in prices.
APW wheat traded well over $300 delivered port from the start of January to the first week of March last year. Despite the recent falls in US wheat futures and the subsequent rebound, Australian wheat markets have not greatly changed this year.
Doubts over weather in some key grain-producing regions have contributed to some small rises in wheat prices this week. Snow in grain-producing countries around the Black Sea have slowed logistics and shipping of grain.
Also, recent rain in Argentina were disappointing and have not helped the corn crop to compensate for the dry weather over the past six weeks. Like their Australian colleagues, Argentinian grain growers are standing back from the market.
Victorian APW wheat prices have firmed to $2 a tonne over the week and were quoted at $205/tonne delivered Geelong and Melbourne early this week. Feed and malting barley prices, however, are unchanged - $3 lower in all southeastern ports of Australia.
The US Federal Reserve has confirmed that low interest rates will be a part of the US economy for the next two years, leading the Aussie dollar to surge to more than US106c. The knock-on effect for grain growers is that the Australian dollar is not going to be providing any immediate relief to the low grain prices at present.
The Victorian wheat market is operating under a blend of two distinct price tiers. Domestic wheat buyers who are in no great hurry to buy grain are able to buy small parcels of AGP and SFW wheat at $192/tonne delivered to Melbourne stockfeed mills.
Some growers are keen to out load wheat from temporary on-farm storage, and there is increasing evidence that mice numbers are on the rise and may again represent a threat to grain under tarps.
For those stockfeed wheat buyers who are looking to secure volumes of more than a thousand tonnes, the market is demanding higher prices. The big-volume sellers are not prepared to sell SFW wheat under $200. Big parcels of ASW are available at a minimum of $205/tonne delivered Melbourne end users.
Our tables show a $5 fall in the South Australian H2 wheat pool, reflecting a fall in cash prices over the last six months.
