04/12/07 U.S. wheat ending stocks reduced

Farm and Ranch April 12, 2007 The USDA this week projected U.S. 2006-2007 wheat ending stocks at 422 million bushels. That is down 50 million bushels from last month due to increases in domestic use, like feed use, and exports. It is also down from the previous year's carryover of 528 million bushels. USDA reduced its ending stock projections for hard red winter wheat, soft red winter and hard red spring wheat but left white wheat unchanged at 46 million bushels. That's well below last year's 78 million bushel white wheat carryout. USDA's projection for world wheat ending stocks was about unchanged at just over 121 million metric tons, about 26 million less than the previous year. Jon Marcus of Lakefront Futures & Options in Chicago says all the USDA carryout numbers issued this week for grain are nice but this is a weather market. Marcus: "I mean it is a weather market and you could really see that starting Sunday night based on the weather on Saturday and Sunday. It is going to be a long ride through planting and through this entire growing season. And we think the ranges are just going to be something we haven't seen for several years now as far as volatility." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.