In the USA corn and soybean futures found some weakness from better growing weather while winter wheat futures for both hard and soft varieties were a tad firmer. Spring wheat futures at Minneapolis were also softer on the weather, although little rain has fallen across the driest parts of N.Dakota and S.Saskatchewan at this stage.
Looking at the rainfall map for Russia it appears all one has to do to get a shower or two of rain at Stavropol is start a header. There’s been some good falls across the Black Sea region last week with both Ukraine and Romania seeing heavy rain in places. France remains unusually dry to the SW, the major durum region, while Germany has seen good rain in the south while the north, like much of France, remains a little dry.

The punters were generally anticipating a move lower in US corn ratings this week but the weekend rain has put an end to that concern so even if we do see a slight week on week downturn in the G/E rating of corn and beans in this week’s crop progress report the Chicago market appears less likely to react. Spring wheat on the other hand may find itself breaking away from the row crops depending on how the Canadian Prairies comes out at the end of the week.
Higher domestic prices in Russia, due to tighter old season stocks and the currency value, are expect to slip quickly as wheat harvest starts. This has a few of the punters expecting to see Black Sea offers fall as much as US$20-30 from September to December.