Canadian oat stocks at the end of March were tighter compared to a year earlier, while barley stockpiles were little changed.
A Statistics Canada quarterly grain stocks report Thursday pegged national oat stocks as of March 31 at 1.283 million tonnes, down 13.1% on the year and the lowest for the date since 2022 at 1.228 million. Meanwhile, March 31 barley stocks, at 3.066 million, were just 0.2% lower than the previous year.
Last year’s barley usage between March 31 and the end of the crop year on July 31 amounted to 1.921 million tonnes. The same usage this year would put 2024-25 barley ending stocks at 1.145 million, well above Agriculture Canada’s current projection of 785,000 but near 2023-24 ending stocks of 1.152 million.
For oats, March 31-July 31 usage last year was 1.034 million tonnes. Similar usage this year would put 2024-25 ending stocks at 249,000 tonnes, compared to the Ag Canada forecast of 400,000 and 442,000 in 2023-24.
StatsCan said domestic barley use to March 31 — largely for feed — decreased 8.7% to 4.3 million tonnes. On the other hand, exports of barley increased compared with the same period in 2024, rising 7.7% to 2 million tonnes.
Oat domestic use to March 31 fell 11.2% year-over-year to 734 600 tonnes. However, exports of oats rose 10.4% compared with the same period one year earlier to 1.8 million tonnes, in line with the five-year average.
Commercial stocks of barley as of March 31 were up 8.4% to 488,000 tonnes, while on-farm stocks fell 1.8% to 2.578 million tonnes.
On-farm stocks of oats as of March 31 were down 11.5% to 1.006 million tonnes, with commercial stocks falling 18.3% to 277,000 tonnes.
