An "Island of Supply"
Farm and Ranch August 16, 2010 After reviewing last week’s reports from the USDA on wheat, analyst Dan Basse of AgResource Company called the United States the “island of supply.” Basse: “And the reason being is, if this report was done with normal Russian weather we could all basically call it bearish and go home for the winter. Unfortunately though with the Russians having one of their worst droughts in decades, we now become the world‘s storefront in terms of grain and oilseed products.” In expectation of that the USDA raised its forecast for U.S. wheat exports this marketing to 1.2 billion bushels, a 200 million bushel increase from last month. Basse: “With 100 million of that in protein wheat, HRW. My view is that the world comes to us for protein wheat, milling wheat. That is what the Russians export. And until we get into the southern hemisphere harvest down south in Australia and Argentina in December and January the big question is going to be can our export facilities at the Gulf and PNW handle all the business from China in beans, the world in wheat and then the increase in feed grains from a host of sectors around the world.” Recall that the movement of grain in and through the Pacific Northwest by barge for export on the Columbia-Snake River system will be shutdown for several months beginning this coming December. That 200 million bushel increase for U.S. wheat exports by the USDA did not include any soft white wheat. Those exports were unchanged from the July forecast of 160 million bushels. I’m Bob Hoff and that’ the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ? ? ?
