11/21/05 Cattle on Feed report a little bearish

Marketline November 21, 2005 USDA's Cattle on Feed Report issued Friday afternoon was being viewed a slightly negative for cattle futures today. October placements were up three percent from the year-ago level, marketings were down three percent and the November 1 inventory was up one percent. The placement number was the surprise and USDA analyst Shayle Shagum has a possible explanation. Shagum: "Indicates to us that we are seeing cattle coming off of pasture earlier than we would have normally seen and I think what that is reflecting is continued dry conditions in much of the area where people had been planning on over wintering their animals." USDA says feeder cattle and calves sold steady to two dollars higher last week. Ahead of the on-feed report Feb live cattle were down 35 cents at 93-32. Jan feeders down 40 at 111-95. Jan Class III milk down four cents at 12-66. Wheat futures were mixed Friday with nearby Chicago contracts setting new lows. There wasn't any U.S. export news. India did say it had begun trading wheat futures at the Board of Trade but still says it doesn't believe wheat imports are necessary in the near-term. The Ukraine said it's unable to meet some export obligations due to a shortage of milling wheat for its domestic industry. On Friday March Chicago wheat was down 3 3/4 cents at 3-17 3/4. March corn down 1 1/4 at 2-05 1/4. Portland cash white wheat a penny lower but mostly 3-44. Club wheat 3-88. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein higher at 4-52. Dark northern spring 14% protein unchanged to lower at 5-20. Export barley 103 dollars a ton. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network.