01/24/06 Wheat and cattle futures mixed

Marketline January 24, 2006 Wheat futures saw some early strength Monday from less than expected weekend precipitation in the Plains but then profit taking emerged and contracts closed lower. Mark Chido of Slipka Commodities at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange says USDA's export inspections report was fair for wheat. Chido: "Nothing dynamic but it was all right. Wheat 18.7 million bushels. Of course heavily weighted towards the hard wheats. We are way out of the world market on the soft wheat something like 15 to 20-dollars a ton depending upon where you are trying to get it sold. So that weighs on Chicago a little bit" On Monday March Chicago wheat was down a half cent at 3-26. March corn up 3 ¼ at 2-08 ¼. Portland cash white wheat steady to a penny higher at mostly 3-44. August new crop higher at 3-58 to 3-61. Club wheat 3-94. PNW HRW 11.5 percent protein lower at 4-53. Dark northern spring 14% protein unchanged to lower at 5-13. Export barley 101 dollars a ton. Cattle futures were mixed Monday as uncertainty weighed on the cattle market given the shut off of U.S. beef exports to Japan and a new case of BSE in Canada. A high level USDA team is in Japan and Secretary Johanns says the Canadian-U.S. cattle and beef trade will continue. April live cattle down 17 cents at 93-95. March feeders up 30 at 111-78. March Class III milk down eight cents at 12-40. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Marketline on the Northwest Ag Information Network. Now this.