Gleadell Agriculture’s April-June feed wheat pool for the 2014 harvest paid out an average £171.53/t ex-farm, net of haulage and commission.

The pool achieved a base price of £169.74/t ex-farm, compared with the HGCA’s average open-market price of £151.67/t (south-east region) during the period.

Most of this pool was sold by mid-January. “Market prospects appeared to be gloomy and the risk for our pool members was that prices would fall. As things turned out, the correct strategy was the one we followed,” said Gleadell managing director David Sheppard.

Returns for feed barley pool members had excelled in a year when feed barley traded at large discounts to feed wheat and where malting premiums were generally depressed by the quality of the crop, said Mr Sheppard, with the Null-Lox pool producing premiums of £21-28/t over the feed barley base pool price (see below).

New season pools were significantly ahead of the market when new crop market prospects were struggling to find much positive news, said Mr Sheppard.

“The Black Sea harvest has had yields at or above last year’s levels to date. In France, yield prospects appear good, although there are some regional quality issues and, in the USA, spring crops are developing well and the winter wheat harvest is meeting expectations.”

“Prices have fallen significantly over the past two months, by about £25/t. However, a long marketing year stretches ahead of us and, while it is hard to see any bullish influences at present, the past few years have taught us never to be surprised by weather or political events that have dramatic effects on our markets.”