At Chicago soft and hard winter wheat gave back a little of yesterday’s gain while the spring wheat contract at Minneapolis continued to push higher. The nearby slot at MGEX was up just 7c/bu while cash settled at MGEX was up more than 40c/bu and closing above the US$10/bu mark at 1009.75c/bu. In aussie pesos that’s about AUD$498.40 per tonne.
Hard red winter wheat futures found pressure from increased harvest volume. Oklahoma is all but finished and Kansas is up over the half way mark. Support came from quality reports, both Oklahoma and Kansas have seen a little shot and sprung in the later samples and protein is generally back a little on average. The slightly lower quality put even more pressure on spring wheat. If the US get a break in the drought in the north at harvest time and they see down grading up there as well we will continue to see quality wheat prices move higher.

In international business we see The Philippines picking up 40kt of Black Sea feed wheat. Initial expectations was for this to be Australian product. This may indicate availability of SFW1 type wheat out of Australia is minimal.
Sovecon report test weight losses in the far south of Russia thanks to recent wet weather. The reductions in avg yield has rolled through to an amended production estimate from Sovecon of 82.3mt back 2.3mt from their previous number. In this week’s USDA report the estimate was 85mt. Yields in the Rostov area are currently around 3.4t/ha a very slight increase year on year. Further north where harvest in the Volga Valley is just getting underway initial yields are also a little disappointing. Less than ideal sowing conditions last year to blame.