Weekly grain report

Byron Behne watches the grain markets for the Odessa Union Warehouse.

2/23/12: White wheat prices held steady even as Chicago futures prices closed lower on Thursday. The value of the dollar was down on the day but that didn’t help grain prices today. Export sales are delayed until tomorrow due to the holiday on Monday but are expected to show good totals for both corn and wheat last week. Spain reportedly bought some more U.S. SRW for feed and there were sales of 4 million bushels to unknown destinations as well recently. Locally the push to get as much soft white into the pipeline to Portland is almost over as there is almost no room to add any more shipments ahead of the river closure in March.

2/28/12: Soft white prices rallied a dime, as Chicago wheat futures gained 16 cents on Tuesday. Speculators remain record short in Chicago, which could add considerable juice to this rally, should it continue, as they cover those positions. White wheat stands to lose a bit of ground to Chicago if that happens, as it’s very difficult to add any additional wheat to the shipping channels with the annual river closure starting next week.

Australia is also beginning to provide competition on the export feed wheat front, as they recently sold a large amount of wheat to Korea. This was the business that kick started the rally in white wheat and a little competition should dampen our momentum going forward.