Oats Cost Most Since 2008 on Canadian Freigh-Train Delays

Oat futures climbed to the highest since 2008 after jumping the maximum allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday as a rail backlog slows supplies from Canada, the world’s biggest exporter.

Grain shipments in Canada are about nine weeks behind schedule after farmers harvested a bumper crop, said Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association. There are 45,000 grain-car orders that have not been filled on the Prairies, he said. As of Jan. 26, the country shipped 504,280 metric tons of oats since Aug. 1, down 21 percent from a year earlier, government data show.