Weather mixed for wheat futures; feedlot inventory down

Market Line April 20, 2009 Winter wheat futures were lower Friday on moisture for both the hard red winter and soft red winter wheat crops. Meanwhile, continued wet conditions in the Northern Plains remains bullish for spring wheat futures at Minneapolis. Despite the mostly bearish news Louise Gartner for the Linn Group at the Chicago Board of Trade says the wheat market has been holding it own close to trading range lows. Gartner: "We want to get a better handle on what the frost damage is. There are reports coming out of Kansas of some frost damage. The market is not ready to rollover just yet." On Friday Chicago May wheat was down 1 ¾ cents at 5-23. May corn down 9 ½ at 3-78 ¼. Portland soft white wheat any protein steady at mostly 5-50. Maximum 10.5 percent protein 5-55. August new crop higher at 5-36 to 5-54. Club wheat 7-25. Maximum 10.5 percent club wheat 7-30. HRW 11.5 % protein unchanged at 6-10. DNS 14% protein mixed at 7-64. No Portland barley bids. USDA's Cattle on Feed report pegged the April 1st feedlot inventory at 11.2 million head, down five percent from a year ago. March placements were up four percent and marketings were one percent below March of last year. Prior to the report June live cattle were down 60 cents at 84-52. May feeders up 35 at 99-52. May Class III milk up four cents at 10-31 ahead of the March Milk Production report which showed production down two-tenths of a percent from a year ago in the major producing states. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Market Line on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.