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The Kansas City Star, Mo., Agribusiness Column

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 9--FUTURES CLOSE HIGHER, AHEAD OF DAMP FORECAST: Kansas City and Chicago wheat futures closed higher Monday on a technical rebound from Friday's sell-off.

Chicago corn and soybean futures also closed higher.

Kansas City Value Line stock-index futures declined.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said early Monday that 24.122 million wheat bushels were inspected for export last week.

This was above trade expectations for 16 million to 21 million bushels.

Weather concerns continued to dominate trading in corn and soybeans.

Forecasters said early Monday that mostly satisfactory weather was expected this week in the U.S. northern plains for wheat.

Chicago corn futures closed higher, recovering from Friday's weakness, but backed off early highs on updated weather outlooks calling for more rain. The government reported disappointing numbers for corn exports Monday.

The 29.395 million bushels inspected for export last week was below trade expectations for 30 million to 35 million bushels.

Chicago soybean futures rebounded from Friday's fund-led sell-off.

The expectation for mostly dry and warm weather this week in the eastern section of the U.S. Midwest crop region was also supportive.

Still, forecasts for more rain than predicted earlier Monday stifled early-morning highs of more than 13 cents a bushel.

The U.S. soybean crop is in its key pod-settling and pod-filling stage of development, which makes it vulnerable to potential harm from hot dry weather.

The government also said Monday that 4.767 million bushels of soybeans were inspected for export last week, within trade expectations for 2.0 million to 5.0 million bushels.

CROP SURVEY: Allendale Inc. will release results of its 16th annual Crop Yield Farmer Survey on Aug. 26.

Allendale, which is based in McHenry, Ill., is a well-known commodity research and brokerage firm.

The firm's crop survey was started in 1990 to determine to what degree U.S. wheat, corn and soybean crops are above or below normal.

Surveying began Monday. If you are a farmer and would like to participate in the survey, call Allendale at (800) 551-4626 until Aug. 19.

You also can go online at www.allendale-inc.com.

The results of the survey will be released Aug. 26 at 7:30 a.m. C entral time to survey participants and at 8:30 a.m. C entral time to the general public.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release updated estimates on Friday.

TRADE AGREEMENT: Although some farm groups oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the pact is seen as a plus by others.

The American Farm Bureau Federation is among those who appreciated its approval by Congress.

President Bush signed the bill Aug. 2.

Bob Stallman, president of the group, said that in producing nearly $1.5 billion a year at full implementation in agricultural exports to the pact region, the agreement provides significant opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers.

The region includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Stallman said the agreement was a net positive for agriculture because tariffs on almost all U.S. products exported to the nations in the pact will decrease to zero percent after full implementation.

SWEET CORN HARVEST: Kansas gardeners who planted sweet corn this year might not have as much to enjoy as they hoped.

Industry experts said that because of weather-related stress throughout the growing season, the 2005 sweet corn harvest will be down.

"We've had more problems with ear development this year than in many years combined," said Chuck Marr, vegetable crops horticulturist for Kansas State University Research and Extension.

The basic cause was stress. In stressful situations a corn plant either stops developing or starts focusing its energy on reproducing before it dies.

Marr said a combination of stresses might have caused this year's problem with ear development to be so severe and widespread.

"This spring we had some very cold early-season temperatures followed by a very hot and dry period in May," Marr said. "Then we got a deluge of rain and cloudy weather in early June and a very hot, dry early July."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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