A smaller harvest coupled with dairy farm demand has bumped up feed wheat and barley prices in Canterbury.
Federated Farmers grain and seed chair Ian Mackenzie says the greater need for stock feed in some drier parts of the country has also helped to lift the demand for grain.
"It hasn't been anything as near as good a harvest as we've had for the last two or three years," he says, "and so the supply is down a bit and prices have firmed.
"They seem to have firmed internationally as well, and I think there's a few concerns about production in some of the major grain-growing areas of the world in terms of drought and cold and various other adverse weather events."
Mr Mackenzie says wheat and barley are selling for more than $400 a tonne.