Benchmark HRW wheat prices on the Chicago Board of Trade on
Wednesday climbed to the highest since Nov. 22 on worries over deteriorating
crop conditions.
Temperatures in central and southwest Kansas, eastern Colorado
and northern Oklahoma were low enough for long enough on Monday to damage or
kill some dormant hard red winter (HRW) wheat, which is milled for flour to
make bread and pizza crust.
How broad the damage was will not be clear until the crop breaks
dormancy in late winter or spring.
Crop conditions in Kansas, the top HRW producer, are already
deteriorating. The U.S. Department of Agriculture rated just 37 percent of the
crop in good to excellent condition at the end of December, down from 51 percent
a month earlier.
Colder air across the U.S. Plains lifted benchmark CME live
cattle futures to a seven-week high late last week as beef packers rushed to
secure livestock. Prices are expected to ramp higher this week as frigid
weather may slow weight gains in cattle and make it difficult to sort and load
livestock - which limits their availability to processors.
“Late last week and this week on the cattle market there has
been some difficulties in transporting animals and even meat in some areas of
the Plains, Upper Midwest and in the Eastern United States,” said
Colorado-based Livestock Marketing Information Center Director Jim Robb.