1CWAD13 durum bids across SW Saskatchewan were up a few dollars for the Jan 2021 slot overnight and basically equate to a port value at Newcastle of around AUD$400 as a guide.
Crop quality reports out of the states have the North Dakota durum crop pegged at 84% Good / Excellent and 72% emerged. The G/E rating is high but the emergence rate is still well behind the 91% average. Around 9% of the crop is jointed which is also well behind the average of 20% for this time of year.
The French durum crop is rated at 63% Good / Excellent, also behind last year’s rating for this time, which was 71%.

Last week we saw the first of the Saskatchewan crop rating for this season including durum. Sowing is almost complete with rapid progress being made. Many locations are 20% ahead of the 5 year average and many have finished the planting program. The Canadians use a crop condition index rating as opposed to a simple Poor > Excellent scale. The easiest way to compare it to the popular scale is to say 200 is excellent and 20 is poor, with 100 being fair. Currently the durum crop is rated at about 178. This is a mile in front of both last year and the five year average. Canola is rated at 168 and is the poorest of all the rated grains at this stage. Everything is a mile ahead of last year though and also ahead of the 5 year average. The very south of the Canadian durum belt remains dry as do the Dakotas and Montana. Central and northern Saskatchewan has seen some good rain over the last couple of weeks though, good for canola.