Price of feed in Canada - Data and Analysis (2002-2032)

Canada's feed price index is easing to 123.4 in 2026, down 1.1% from 124.75 in the prior year, as ample global grain supplies continue to outweigh pockets of tightness in individual feed grains. Record Canadian crop production in 2025 has kept corn, wheat and oilseed supplies historically abundant, with Statistics Canada reporting the national grains price index down 6.9% through the first quarter of the year. Barley is the clear outlier. Historically, low ending stocks and cattle-on-feed inventories running 10.0% above year-ago levels have kept barley and other substitutable feed grains firm through the summer, even as new-crop bids already trade at a discount to old-crop values heading into harvest. Soybean meal costs have also remained at historically elevated levels, supported by import restrictions on Canadian pulses, which have pushed additional peas into the domestic feed market as a cheaper substitute. The result is a much shallower decline than 2025's steep correction, as tightening pockets of the feed complex partially offset continued softness in the broader grain and oilseed markets.Feed prices have swung through one of the most volatile five-year stretches in the index's history. The period opened from a relatively stable base of 105.40 in 2020, before a convergence of pandemic-driven supply chain disruption, extreme weather across key growing regions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine — which disrupted global grain and fertilizer flows — drove the index to a historic peak of 160.08 in 2022, roughly 60.0% above the base-year level.That surge has since been unwound. Record crop production, restored transportation capacity and stabilizing global trade conditions have allowed the index to correct sharply through 2023 and 2024 before easing further into 2026. A record Canadian harvest of 107 million tonnes in 2025 added to already ample global stocks, pushing corn, wheat and oilseed prices broadly lower and outweighing the tightening barley market that has emerged more recently. Trade friction has also reshaped protein meal costs during the period, as market access restrictions on Canadian pulse exports to India have redirected surplus peas into domestic feed rations, helping offset otherwise elevated soybean and canola meal prices. Livestock producers have benefited from the overall moderation, recovering some of the margin compressed during the spike in 2021 and 2022, even as government support programs proved insufficient to offset the scale of the increases at the time. Feed prices have declined at a compound annual rate of 0.9% through 2026, though the index remains well above the levels that prevailed through the 2010s, reflecting structural cost increases that have not fully unwound alongside the broader correction.