Portland Grain Review 03/31

March 31, 2016 Portland Price Trends 03-01-15 08-01-15 02-01-16 03-24-16 03-31-16 #1 SWW (bu) 6.77 5.67 5.32 5.03 5.11 White Club 9.27 6.42 6.57 5.23 5.31 DNS 14% 8.95 6.19 6.21 6.09 6.24 HRW 11.5% 6.75 5.60 5.60 5.47 5.51 #2 Corn (ton) 176.00 160.00 162.00 159.00 152.00 #2 Barley 170.00 159.00 145.00 145.00 145.00 Wheat...The spur in wheat futures steered west coast wheat prices back toward the upper end of a two-week trading range today, with nearby basis levels holding steady. Trading remains light and exporter bid structures remain generally flat for all three wheat classes through May delivery. Weekly Sales...USDA reported demand for US wheat slipped back from the prior week, but held slightly ahead of the four-week average. Total sales came in at 11.6 mb for the week, putting year-to-date sales at 707 mb and 16% behind a year ago. Top seller was hard red spring with 4.7 mb in old crop bookings, along with 1.8 mb of new crop. Hard red winter registered 2.4 mb, followed by soft white with 1.8 mb. Sales were scattered between a long list of buyers, topped by the Philippines with 2 mb, and China was a notable buyer of 1.1 mb of hard red spring. Stocks & Acreage....A dramatic reduction in spring planting intentions for Washington sets the stage for the lowest overall wheat plantings for the Pacific Northwest since 1987. If realized, Washington spring acreage would be down 24% from last year, the lowest since 2007. Combined wheat acreage for the three-state region would be at 4.18 mln acres, coming in near the lows of the late 1980's. Washington intentions show substantial percentage increases in small garbs, lentils and barley. Wheat stocks for the three-states, as expected, are up 25 mb from March last year at 138 mb for a 22% year-to-year increase. -Norm Ruhoff Contributing Analyst Copyright 2016 DTN/Telvent. All Rights Reserved.