A nothing night in US grain futures. Further technical selling in wheat, corn and soybeans resulting in a flat to softer close. Technically the US wheat futures markets continues to look more like a buy than a sell. March 21 will roll off the board tonight and volume will be, as it has been for a few weeks now, centred on the May / July slots, the last of the old crop contracts.

The forecast for rain across the US hard red wheat belt was probably the most negative story of the night. The forecast has up to 100mm of rain across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, northern Kansas and southern Missouri. The HRW belt has been dry and this fall, if as heavy as predicted, will go a long way to alleviating the soil moisture deficit in some of the very dry locations map attached.

World Ag Weather shows 30 days rainfall across much of the Russian wheat districts has been a little lower than ideal at 10-40mm. There is one small location showing some very heavy rain but generally the area around the Black Sea could do with a little more rain. The same can be said for Ukraine and Crimea. Russian spring wheat sowing is also underway. Although that region is looking better than 2020, it could be better.
The biggest weather story continues to be Brazil and Argentina. The Argentine corn condition rating is terrible, too dry, just 17% of the crop now rated Good / Excellent and just 6% of the soybeans there rated G/E. Slow 2nd corn sowing pace in Brazil should be closely monitored.