June 9, 2008

US winter wheat expectations improve after rains

Strong yield potential seen in the US winter wheat crop is expected to push the USDA to raise its forecasts for all-winter wheat production and new-crop ending stocks.

The increases are expected in the agency's June supply/demand and crop production reports, due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The average of analysts' estimates for 2008 US all-winter wheat production is 1.813 billion bushels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Last month, the USDA pegged all-winter wheat production at 1.778 billion bushels.

Increases are expected in production estimates for hard red winter wheat, used for bread and grown primarily in the Plains, and soft red winter wheat, used for snack foods. The average of analysts' estimates is 1.038 billion for HRW wheat, up from the USDA's May forecasts of 1.011 billion, and 562 million for SRW wheat, up from 551 million last month.