In the USA wheat futures continued to find a little support although in the case of SRW futures at Chicago that support only prevented further losses than the 1c/bu decline in nearby values. Spring wheat futures is where the interest lies. Looking at N.Dakota we see that as of the 24th only 9% of the spring wheat had been planted a small 3% increase from the previous week. This time last year over 25% of the crop had been sown just a little above the 5 year average.
Durum sowing pace is a similar situation with only 5% sown as of the beginning of this week, half of the normal pace. Minnesota and Montana are no better than N.Dakota. The state with any real progress has been S.Dakota which had managed to get around 75% of projected spring wheat acres sown.
The US weather map continues to show some very heavy rain likely to develop across the corn and soybean belt east of the Mississippi over the weekend and into the beginning of next week. The final volume and subsequent planting delays to corn will determine the nearby impact on US grain values. There is also a little concern some SRW acres may be lost to flooding.
It should also be mentioned that rain is also predicted across much of eastern Kansas which could possibly exacerbate the rapidly developing disease issues being picked up in that area. Stripe rust is developing in fields and head scab is also a risk later.