Portland Grain Review 04/19

April 19, 2016 Portland Price Trends 04-01-15 08-01-15 03-01-16 04-12-16 04-19-16 #1 SWW (bu) 6.87 5.67 4.90 5.02 5.34 White Club 9.37 6.42 5.10 5.32 5.64 DNS 14% 9.12 6.19 5.95 6.11 6.32 HRW 11.5% 7.04 5.60 5.34 5.32 5.67 #2 Corn (ton) 171.00 160.00 153.00 158.00 166.00 #2 Barley 160.00 159.00 145.00 140.00 140.00 Wheat...Continued strength across the futures complex made a positive start to the week for west coast wheat markets. Cash prices for white and hard red winter wheat advanced to the best levels in 3 months, while hard red spring posted the best price in over 4 months. White wheat basis was the only spread to soften against higher futures, pulling back to 48 over Chicago this afternoon from a recent high of 60 over. Farmer selling was noted at the higher price levels, primarily in old crop positions. Shipments...Weekly export inspections showed a solid improvement from the prior week, coming in near 17 mb to put US wheat shipments at 647 mb and 13% behind a year ago. Top shipper was hard red spring wheat at 6.4 mb, followed by hard red winter with 4.8 mb. Soft white shipped a total of 2.7 mb. Notable destinations off the west coast included China for a 2.2 mb loading of hard red spring wheat, along with Egypt, South Korea, and the Philippines accounting for the majority of shipments. Crop Progress..Winter wheat ratings for the three-state region of the Pacific Northwest held at 105% of the 10-year average, with the overall crop off to the best start since 2012. Good to excellent ratings stand at 90% for Idaho, 80% for Washington and 66% for Oregon. Montana is rated at 58%; down 3% from last week and five points below a year ago. Spring wheat plantings are running ahead of average with nationwide progress at 27% complete. Washingtion put in more than 20% of the crop over the past week and is 63% complete, Idaho planted 16% of the crop and reports 46% planted. Crop conditions remain near ideal with recent precipitation now being followed with warm weather. -Norm Ruhoff Extension Economist University of Idaho CALS-AERS Copyright 2016 DTN/Telvent. All Rights Reserved.