Better Australian harvest weather; cattle on feed numbers
Market Line November 22, 2010 Rains have delayed harvest in eastern Australia but harvesters may see dry weather for several days this week. Dry weather continues to diminish crop prospects in Western Australia. Dryness in the hard red winter wheat belt continued to provide support to U.S. wheat futures Friday and they closed mixed with Chicago the weakest market. While areas of the Pacific Northwest may see some very cold temperatures good moisture and the healthy condition of the winter wheat is seen as helping it weather the conditions, with wind or lack thereof a key variable. On Friday Chicago December wheat down ¾ of a cent at 6-44 ½. December corn down 21 cents at 5-20 ¾. Portland soft white wheat for December by rail only was down 25 cents to up a dime at 6-10 to 6-60. No Portland club or red wheat bids. Minneapolis December spring wheat futures up 1 ¾ cents at 7-25 ¾. USDA issued its monthly Cattle on Feed report Friday and department livestock analyst Shale Shagum sums it up. Shagum: “The number of cattle on feed in U.S. feedlots with a capacity of a thousand head or more on November 1st was about 11.5 million head, which was up 3% from a year ago. We placed 2.5 million head during October, which was about one percent higher and marketed about 1.7 million head, which was down one percent from a year ago.” Ahead of the report cattle futures were mostly higher. December live cattle up 65 cents at 101-45. January feeders up 135 at 117-40. December Class III milk down seven cents at 13-92. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Market Line on Northwest Aginfo Net. Now this.
