UK May wheat futures continue to trade within the same tight channel of the last four weeks and lacking any significant change in local or global supply and demand it continues to do so. It seems that the inclusion or exclusion of a comma might be very expensive as a US court case has recently highlighted. Another win for the lawyers maybe?!
UK wheat prices showed a small bounce earlier in the week but have returned to the gentle downward trend, with the May wheat hitting contract lows of £137.50 and finished the week just above that level. Can a swarm of locusts cause huge embarrassment to Russian officials if as feared, the locusts sit down to enjoy some of the football pitches set aside for the World Cup in June this year.
In part three of our series, Flock Focus, we re-join Fred Powell and his family with their first flock in Mid Wales. Our last visit to Fred’s farm saw egg production underway, with 32,000 pullets reared by Humphrey Feed & Pullets in his new multi-tier Big Dutchman shed. The birds are now 51 weeks of age, and production is excellent.
May UK wheat futures weakened this week and fell through to £138 on Friday, the lowest price since December 2016. Russia seems to have realised that it has little competition in the international wheat export market this year, so even with prices rising their dominance has not been affected. The remains of the Clotilda - the last known ship to carry enslaved Africans into the US may have been found
There has been very little volatility for quite some time and the trade is getting bored. Michael Gove, the Defra Secretary, attended both of the Oxford conferences this week, the Oxford Farming Conference and the rival Oxford Real Farming Conference. Archaeologists in Alaska have found an 11,500 year-old skeleton
Defra and the trade are now in agreement that UK wheat supply and demand are in relative balance assuming both exports and imports also remain in balance. At the Jack Daniels distillery at Lynchburg, Tennessee they have a unique way of celebrating Christmas – they build the Jack Daniels Christmas Barrel Tree. Merry Christmas!
All wheat markets are weak, reflecting ample global stocks and pressured by forecasts of larger Canadian and Australian harvests. Brazil and Argentina are also currently busy harvesting, so the world is not short of wheat. Back in the 18th century, a paper was needed in order to prove that cocks are incapable of laying eggs...