04/16/07 No marketing quota for 2008 crop wheat

Farm and Ranch April 16, 2007 The USDA recently announced there will be no marketing quota in effect for the 2008 wheat crop. Quotas? What's this about? Tom Tice of the Farm Service Agency explains. Tice: "The purpose for making the announcement of whether or not a marketing quota is required stems from permanent legislation that would be in effect for the 2008 crop if no new farm legislation was to be enacted before the 2008 crop was to be produced." The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 requires a marketing quota for the 2008 wheat crop if the total supply of the crop would likely be excessive without the quota. Tice says the Agriculture Secretary has determined the crop will not be excessive. Tice: "And that's technical term but in terms of what producers would normally think about the carryout stocks that we would expect on the 2008 crop are going to be relatively low and prices are going to stay fairly firm. Current price projections for the 2006 crop are for wheat prices to average about $4.25 per bushel and that is the highest they have been since the 1996 crop. So, given the high prices and relatively low stocks, supplies are not really excessive in wheat." That 1938 Act also required USDA to determine whether a quota is needed no later than April 15th. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.