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All articles about Crops markets and prices

Check the latest futures prices and spot and forward prices for feed wheat, milling wheat, oilseed rape, feed barley, peas and beans. Keep fully informed of what is happening in the crop and grain markets with our prices news and trends analysis and the market outlook for growers.

Advice and tips

BUSINESS

Crop buyers' contract terms farmers should be vigilant about

Growers should check the annual terms of trade issued by buyers to make sure they are aware of all requirements and restrictions, say advisers. These terms apply for each crop…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

How to use grain futures and options to manage risk

Grain futures and options provide a way of managing volatile grain markets, but understanding how they work is critical to using them successfully. The futures market is a formal, regulated…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Trading grain: Advice on locking in to profitable prices

Many arable farmers are not taking a rigorous enough approach to grain trading to protect themselves from losing money in volatile grain markets, say experts. James Bolesworth, director of independent…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

How to avoid costly disputes over grain contracts

Contracts are legally binding documents and set out the agreed quantity, quality and delivery aspects of a deal between the arable grower and merchant. However, many growers don’t take time…

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Case studies

Get more for your grain with free online auction site

Both merchants and growers are benefiting from a new free online grain trading site, developed in the South Downs by a grower and computer developer. Growers are saving time in…

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Insights

OILSEED RAPE

Oilseed rape looks set to bounce back as crop area rises

Optimism is growing in the oilseed rape industry with this season’s crop area rising, buoyed by last summer’s high yields, firm rapeseed prices and reduced risk from one key damaging…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Outlook 2026: Sugar beet faces lower prices, increased costs

It was written last year that despite the 17.5% price reduction to a headline £33/t, the 2025-26 sugar beet campaign would produce returns for growers that compared favourably to alternative…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Outlook 2026: Potato price pressure mounts

The optimism of the sector experienced over the past two years has been dampened by the finish to the marketing of the 2024 harvest, due to oversupply as old crop…

BUSINESS

Outlook 2026: Small returns for best combinable crop growers

The past two seasons have been incredibly challenging for all combinable crop growers – physically for all and financially for most. Fundamentally, yield, or rather lack of it, has been…

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News

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Wheat flutters around £172/t amid US-Iran talks uncertainty

UK wheat futures have been fluctuating between £170/t and £175/t for the May 2026 contract, as markets react to a rapidly evolving situation in the Middle East. Volatility has presented…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Frontier rolls out digital grain monitoring across sites

Major agronomy and grain trading group Frontier Agriculture is investing in digital grain monitoring to check and regulate crop conditions in stores. The technology was installed at three sites in…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Middle East conflict keeps wheat markets elevated

Global grain markets remain volatile with heightened tensions in the Middle East adding support to prices, despite large supplies globally. Unlike the disruption at the start of the Ukraine war,…

CROPS MARKETS AND PRICES

Grain markets volatile as Iran conflict pushes up costs

Global grain markets have fluctuated widely in the past week as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. May 2026 UK feed wheat futures rallied to £175.40/t…

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Video

BUSINESS

Video: Basic features of futures markets and hedging

In the second part of the Commodity Risk Management online course, Professor Joost M.E. Pennings builds on the foundations laid in part one of the course. He goes into more…

BUSINESS

Video: Value of risk management and hedging

In this video, Professor Joost M.E. Pennings explains the role of hedging in lowering the cost of captial and increasing net cash flow. As an authority in the field of…

BUSINESS

UK barley exports keep up good pace

UK barley exports continue at a good pace, with 26,000t of UK feed barley heading to Algeria through Gleadell Agriculture’s Immingham export facility. The 900 or so lorryloads it will…

BUSINESS

VIDEO: Feed prices crippling pig industry

Stuart Bosworth, Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year 2011, talks about the rising costs of pig feed and how this is affecting the industry. With 60-70% of the cost…

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