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Winnipeg canola futures were down a little on Friday on confirmation of large stocks, a stronger loonie and weaker crude oil.

March canola fell $1.90 to close at $380.30 per tonne on 8,267 trades. Compared to the close on the previous Friday, the contract rose $4.50 per tonne.

May fell $2.10 to $386.40 on 4,211 trades. New crop November fell $1.70 to $400.30 per tonne on 176 trades.

The Canadian dollar at noon Friday was 93.24 cents US, up from 93.16 cents at noon the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0725 Cdn.

The Winnipeg March barley contract fell $1 to $148.50 per tonne with no trades. May fell $1 to $152.50 on no trade.

March soybeans fell a half cent to $9.135 US per bushel. November soybeans were $9.035 per bu.

Light crude oil in New York for March delivery closed at $71.68 US per barrel, down $1.46 cents.

Statistics Canada issued a report that showed stocks of wheat and barley as of Dec. 31 were smaller than expected.

Stocks of all wheat in grain bins and country elevators totalled 21.685 million tonnes, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier. Barley stocks shrunk 11.1 percent to 7.553 million tonnes. The news should have supported barley prices, but Winnipeg futures closed down $1 per tonne.

Statscan reported lower stocks of canola at 8.762 million tonnes and oats at 2.838 million tonnes, in line with average trade expectations.

Wheat stocks, excluding durum, were 16.1 million tonnes, down 6.5 percent.

Durum stocks were 5.58 million tonnes, up 16.5 percent from last year.

Flax stocks were 843,000 tonnes, up 40.5 percent from last year.

Lentil stocks were 772,000, up 22.7 percent.

Pea stocks were 2.75 million tonnes, up 7.6 percent.

The Canadian Oilseed Processors Association reported that members crushed 87,193 tonnes of canola the week ending Feb. 3, up 0.5 percent over the week before. It is the fourth consecutive week that crush increased.

That used 78.6 percent of the crush capacity.

Last year in the same week, 84,826 tonnes were crushed. After lagging last year's pace all year, crush is starting to catch up.

In the crop year to date, crush now lags last year's pace by only 4.5 percent.