Hursh Consulting & Communications Inc.

The Pool Return Outlooks for wheat and durum have seen another significant increase. After deducting average Saskatchewan freight and handling, No. 1 CWRS wheat with 12.5 per cent protein is now expected to have a price of $6.94 a bushel.  This surpasses the $6.56 a bushel that was the final price in 2008-09, but it’s still less than the $8.40 a bushel earned back in the 2007-08 crop year. Of course, there isn’t a lot of No. 1 wheat around this year. The Pool Return Outlook for a No. 3 is $5.64 a bushel and that’s well over last crop year’s price for the top grade. Feed wheat has a PRO of $4.90 a bushel. No. 1 durum with 12.5 per cent protein now has a PRO of $6.70 a bushel. That’s considerably better than last year’s $3.96 a bushel, but it is well below the $8.58 earned in 2008-09 and it’s not even in the same ballpark as the $12.42 earned back in 2007-08. There isn’t much top grade durum around either, but No. 3 durum has a PRO of $5.53 a bushel and that’s a lot better than last year’s price for the top grade. It’ll be interesting to see the price projections for the new crop year. Those will be released near the end of February. I’m Kevin Hursh.