10/13/08 World wheat supplies still growing

Farm and Ranch October 13, 008 The saying is "big crops get bigger" and a USDA report issued Friday showed just that as the department increased its forecast for world wheat production, already record large, by nearly four million metric tons to 680 million. World wheat ending stocks were also hiked by 4.5 million tons and are forecast to be nearly 25 million more than this past year. That increase included a boost in U.S. wheat ending stocks by 27 million bushels from last month based on increased production from the Small Grains Summary report in late September. USDA did not change its overall forecast for U.S. wheat exports but did make some class adjustments including a five million bushel decrease for white wheat, with those exports now projected at only 130 million bushels. Wheat prices have been falling and USDA's new forecast for the season average wheat price is also down from $7.25 to $7 a bushel. In fact USDA cut price projections for commodities across the board prompting this comment from chief economist Joe Glauber. Glauber: "The idea that agriculture is going to continue on this path of record net farm income is probably not the case." USDA is projecting larger U.S. corn and soybean crops than a month ago with the corn crop pegged at 12.2 billion bushels, the second largest ever after last years. The average corn price is now forecast at $4.90 a bushel, down from $5.50 a month ago. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.