Farmers Continue To Watch Markets Rise

Farmers are continuing to watch the markets rise.

Brian Voth is president of IntelliFARM Inc.

"I don't think this volatility is going away anytime soon," he said. "With the tightness in the stock situation on the old crop side, really what it means is that there's no buffer for new crop and any production problems this year. I think we're going to see these higher prices stick around at least until we know what the crop is looking like by mid-summer, later summer, that sort of thing. Even at that point, it's questionable whether we actually have the ability to build balance sheets back up in one crop year anymore, just because of how tight things have gotten."

Voth believes prices will come back down to earth.

"I do think that we're in for a period of higher prices, but that said, don't get lulled into thinking the $15, $18, $20 or even $24 canola is the new norm. It's not and we will go back to normal at some point. I don't think it will end up being for the 2021 crop year."

He commented on daily limits being increased.

"Anytime any of the grains trade and close at a limit...if it closes locked at a limit, up or down, the exchange actually expands the limit for the following day...One way of adding volatility or adding range, if you want to call it that. They're increasing the range because there's obviously a lot of interest at the higher price or lower, depending on which way you go and they increase the range effectively to try and get people in or out of positions that couldn't because we ended up locked at the limit the previous day. Everyday that we close at limit, the limits will get expanded for the following day."