12/15/08 USDA cuts soft white wheat exports again

Farm and Ranch December 15, 2008 The USDA left its projection for overall U.S. wheat exports unchanged in its December supply and demand report last week, but it did make adjustments among wheat classes. USDA increased the forecast for both hard red winter wheat and soft red winter wheat by five million bushels each, but cut the white wheat export projection 10 million bushels from last month. That boosted white wheat carryout next May to 84 million bushels, which would be more than double this past year's ending stocks. Raleigh Curtis with Mid-Columbia Producers explains what the region's soft white wheat producers need. Curtis: "We need Pakistan to buy U.S. wheat and if they buy half a million to 750-thousand metric tons of U.S. wheat we should see prices go higher." Curtis thought USDA's November 74 million bushel white wheat carryout estimate was too high. He thinks exports could pick up because of quality issues from competitors like the Black Sea Region and Australia. Curtis: "We are hoping our higher quality U.S. soft white wheat will find a home in some of the non-traditional markets later in the year." Curtis says we may need the white wheat carryout to even get close to an average crop because of the poor condition of some of the 2009 Pacific Northwest winter wheat crop. Add to the dryness issue the potential now of winterkill. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.