06/12/06 Winter wheat production estimate cut

06/12/06 Winter wheat production estimate cut

Farm and Ranch June 12, 2006 The official estimate of the U.S. winter wheat crop got smaller in USDA's June crop production report. Collins: "We've lowered our production estimate for winter wheat by 4 ½ percent from last month." USDA chief economist Keith Collins who says that takes U.S. winter wheat production down to just one and a quarter billion bushels, 16 percent below last year. Add spring wheat and Collins says U.S. wheat production could drop 14 percent from last year. The drought in the Plains has had the biggest impact on production with the hard red winter wheat crop down eight percent from May and nearly 30 percent less than 2005. White winter wheat is down slightly from last month and forecast to decline 4.8 percent from last year with soft white production pegged at 228 million bushels. The soft red winter wheat crop increased from a month ago and will be up over 15 percent from 2005. USDA didn't change its winter wheat yield estimates in Washington or Oregon from May but did trim Idaho's from 90 to 86 bushels an acre. U.S. wheat ending stocks a year from now are forecast at only 416 million bushels. The bottom line, USDA is forecasting a national average wheat price of $3.90 cents, up from 3-42 for this past crop and the best price in ten years. But market analysts say it is the hard red wheats that will command the best prices not the soft wheats like soft white, the predominant class grown in the PNW. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information
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