06/17/08 Corn ratings drop slightly

Market Line June 17, 2008 Wheat futures were mostly lower Monday. Contracts had been higher in early trading on rain delayed harvesting in the hard red winter wheat belt and spillover support from corn and beans. However lower crude pressured the row crops and was said to spillover to wheat. Weekly wheat export inspections came in under the average needed to meet USDA's export projections. Dry Argentina may get needed rain this week. Iran is on the world market for 50-thousand tons of milling wheat. Traders were looking for a six point drop in the good to excellent rating for the U.S. corn crop but after the close the weekly condition report from USDA only showed a three point drop to 57 percent good to excellent but USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey points out that is well below last year. Rippey: "Last year at this time we saw the corn at 70% good to excellent." On Monday Chicago July wheat was down 5 ½ cents at 8-76 ½. July corn up ¾ of a cent at 7-32 ½. Portland August new crop soft white wheat was unchanged to up a dime at 8-60 to 8-85. August HRW 11.5 % protein down two cents at 10-16. August DNS 14% protein down seven cents at 10-90. Barley at the coast 218 dollars a ton for July. Short covering and fund buying helped cattle futures close higher Monday. August live cattle up 117 at 103-45. August feeders up 50 at 109-65. July Class III milk down 13 cents at 19-55. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.