07/19/06 Wheat and cattle futures mixed

Marketline July 19, 2006 Wheat futures were mixed Tuesday but Chicago actually led with contracts there closing higher. Condition ratings for the spring wheat crop fell eight points from last week but Minneapolis wheat closed lower, though above the daily lows. Marc Chiodo of Slipka Commodities at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, expects some spread unwinding was occurring at Chicago. Chiodo: "In other words they were long corn and short corn. Getting out of those spreads. So they were buying wheat and selling corn in a pretty good way. That kept Chicago up." On Tuesday September Chicago wheat was up a nickel at 3-98. September corn down 5 ¼ at 2-46 ½. Portland cash white wheat one to two cents lower at mostly 3-83. Club wheat 3-88. HRW 11.5 percent protein down a penny at 5-27. Dark northern spring 14% protein down two at mostly 5-83. No Portland barley bids. Live cattle futures were lower Tuesday with feeders higher on lower feed grains. Traders are awaiting a Cattle on Feed report Friday and also a semi-annual cattle inventory report and may not be willing to establish positions ahead of those reports. Aug live cattle down 22 at 82-70. Aug feeders up 20 at 113-55. Aug Class III milk up two cents at 11-30. Following trading USDA reported June milk production in the 23 major states was up 1.9 percent from June of 2005. Production in Idaho was up 7.7%, in Washington down 1.9% and in Oregon down 3.6% from a year ago. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.