05/17/05 Still dry in parts of HRW belt

Marketline May 17, 2005 Recent rains apparently missed some of the drier areas of the hard red winter wheat belt. That along with technical factors provided a bounce for wheat futures Monday. After the close yesterday, USDA reported the U.S. winter wheat crop at 55 percent good to excellent this week, a drop of four points from last week. Gary Hofer of Gary Hofer Commodities,.says that overall however, the trend in wheat is still down. Hofer: "The market is trying to build in a new crop that is coming on fast in the northern hemisphere with the positive side of the price balance being held by some too dry areas in the western end of the Plains states. Outside of that dryness there are few price friendly factors. Exports are slow. Buyers see no need to pay up right now." On Monday Chicago July wheat was up 3 ½ cents at 3-06 1/4. July corn up 3 1/4 at 2-07. Portland cash white wheat steady to two cents lower at mostly 3-88. New crop August lower at 3-68. Club wheat 3-93. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein 3-95. Dark northern spring 14% protein 4-84. Export barley 104 dollars a ton. The Plains fed cattle trade was quiet Monday. Boxed beef was higher on moderate to fairly good demand and moderate offerings. Those better beef prices were cited as a factor for mostly higher cattle futures Monday with many contracts once again setting new highs. But, June live cattle were lower on contract rolling to August, down 32 cents at 86-95. Aug feeders up 50 at 112-82. June Class III milk up 30 cents at 14-16. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.