10/16/06 Analyst says price some 2007 crop wheat

Farm and Ranch October 16, 2006 With wheat prices at ten-year highs market analyst Phyllis Nystrom of Country Hedging says growers should think about pricing some of their 2007 wheat crop. After all says Nystrom the current price levels are going to attract more wheat acres. Nystrom: "I think they really need to take a real hard look at it. We are hearing all over the country where people are going to increase acres on wheat this year. We have heard some places out east on soft red winter it is tough to find seed right now. Guys are going farther north in their planting. Some people who have never planted wheat or haven't planted wheat in several years are going to be planting wheat this fall and will come back and double crop beans next year. So what this could do, you know, when we get there and everybody gets back to a more normal weather pattern, yeah I think they need to take advantage. Do we see these prices very often? Definitely not. You don't want to go whole hog but I think you have to start and put something on and reward the market for what it's done." Nystrom says much of the action at Chicago last week had to do with squeezes on spread traders and really had no relation to price levels. She was also concerned about the higher U.S. prices shutting off export demand but Friday USDA reported respectable export sales from the previous week at over 692-thousand tons. And a new export sale was announced to Egypt. It was for 60-thousand tons of U.S. soft white wheat for November shipment. Egypt bought similar amounts from Russia and Canada but double that amount from France. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.