09/25/08 Soft red winter wheat moving into soft white Asian markets

Farm and Ranch September 25, 2008 There was a big crop of soft red winter wheat in the U.S. this year. That SRW can be used to make the same products as Pacific Northwest soft white wheat. And this year average protein in the soft red is running lower than for soft white, which is desirable for soft wheat uses. The bottom line according to Glen Squires of the Washington Grain Alliance, is that soft red winter wheat is selling into Asia. Squires: "We are already seeing soft red winter going into Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Viet Nam. I mean a lot of typical soft white markets we are starting to see some soft red filter into there. Now granted right now most of it has been through containers and we are hoping those markets will not start buying bulk ships of soft red." Squires says USDA is forecasting a large amount of soft red winter going into feed channels, which he is skeptical about given the price of corn versus soft red wheat. Even if the wheat is fed Squires says soft red ending stocks will be the highest ever. Squires: "I think the implications for soft white, is that if that soft red does not go into feed channels it is going to go into stocks or exports that will obviously be price depressing." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.