10/17/06 Wheat prices soar

Wheat prices have gone limit up recently at the Chicago Board of Trade with soft white wheat topping five dollars a bushel. That's a far cry from prices of nearly three dollars a bushel and it's the biggest jump in prices in a decade. Why? Idaho Wheat Commission administrator Blaine Jacobsen says it's the old law of supply and demand; the Australian wheat crop has been hurt by weather. JACOBSEN "The most recent projection dropped Australia's wheat crop by almost a third from the earlier projection. They've had a very dry year." Nationwide the wheat crop is down about 16 percent from this time last year. Jacobsen says that's contributing to the high prices too, and again its blamed on drought in places like Texas and Oklahoma. JACOBSEN "They're off probably a third from where they are normally. Kansas, Colorado and North Dakota, all of the big wheat producing states are down this year from last year." Idaho farmers planted the same amount of wheat this year as they did last. JACOBSEN "The Idaho crop is ten percent below the crop last year. We had a pretty good moisture year in Idaho but we had hot weather during the middle of the summer and that affected our yields." Some analysts believe that wheat markets could set back at any time but they also expect that they will remain fairly strong and on any weakness be fairly well supported. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott