New forecast raises winter wheat production; drops ending stocks
Farm and Ranch June 10, 2011 In its June crop production report the USDA raised its forecast for U.S. winter wheat production this year two percent above the May estimate. At 1.45 billion bushels the crop would be two percent below last year. Each class of winter wheat, including white wheat was raised two percent from the May report with soft white production pegged at 228 million bushels. Winter wheat yields for Idaho were unchanged from May at 79 bushels an acre. The Oregon yield estimate was up two bushels to 71 and Washington also up two bushels an acre at 67 bushels. In its supply and demand report Charles Soule of Country Hedging says USDA dropped 2011-2012 wheat ending stocks by 15 million bushels to 687 million but raised world ending stocks by three million metric tons. Soule thinks that number will get smaller with time. Soule: “They reduced Canada by only a million tons and I gotta believe it will be less than that based on the acreage situation up there.” USDA boosted an already record average wheat price forecast by 20 cents on both ends of the range, which is now $7 to $8.40 a bushel which reflects both tighter domestic wheat supplies and higher expected corn prices. As for corn, USDA trimmed its planted acreage by 1 ½ million acres. Ending stocks for new crop corn are forecast at a stocks-to-use ratio of only 5.2 percent. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ? ? ? ?
