IT has been said that it's too early to tell if the downgrading of NSW crops to feed quality will have a huge effect on WA prices but the fact that noodle wheat continues to surge ahead in WA is a plus for our farmers.
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There isn't a graingrower in Australia who will walk away from this year without having been impacted by this harvest in one way or another.
WA's dry position has been well known for some months now and it's still set to be WA's smallest crop in many years but mounting grain prices will certainly make up for some of that.
With Noodle wheat hitting $515/t last week it did little for those who were unable to produce Noodle quality grain this season in the face of a volatile market.
Although, it wasn't only the Noodle (ANW1) varieties that were performing well for WA growers because H1 varieties hit $400/t during the week and ANW2 also stretched to $500/t.
The price spike in ANW1 once again reflected its even shorter supply and the higher local and global demand for the grain variety.
As the only State in Australia adapted to producing ANW1, the current prices also reflect WA's inability to provide around 800,000 tonnes of Noodle wheat which is still the current market demand out of Australia each year.
Last week the top bid for Noodle wheat was $60 higher than ever seen before and this week that record figure jumped to $75/t.
WA marketers were still wary of the potential for over-saturation in the Noodle market as premiums had a tendency to suffer in previous years.
"Again, at this stage it's still difficult to see the current premiums sticking around for next year but with that said, there is some premium for ANW1 over APW for next season already," one marketer said.
East coast rain has been a major driver for WA barley prices as the majority of the crop has been downgraded to feed or delayed in the harvest.
Due to those complications Malt bids have improved significantly as merchants try to cover short supply positions with WA malt.
Last Friday saw Malt 1 bids jump $18/t during the day and feed barley bids also pushed higher due to the eastern harvest delay and the angst over a large amount of crop that would be possibly unable to even make the feed grade.
Feed barley prices were up by a dollar or two more than malting grades of barley in all states except WA, where it fell short by $4/t.
That has kept the premium for Gairdner Malt over feed barley at about $100/t-$110/t.
CBH Grain has started to grade some feed barley varietal stacks throughout WA in the hope of picking up some Malt grade grain.
This was good news for farmers because the profits were set to go straight into their pockets.
Canola prices in WA topped $616/t last week and growers experienced an unexpected price rise of $10/t (from $602/t) over a one day period and of all the grain-growing states WA continued to hold the premium price.
In terms of a marketing plan, canola has performed similarly to wheat this season.
Prices are strong, they have risen consistently and they are robust relative to current futures prices.
Growers are optimistic about the price signals being experienced in WA at the moment and have expressed their confidence in the stabilised prices.
