Chicago soybean futures took a breather last night, back 13c/bu on the nearby. Weakness in beans spilled over into both Paris rapeseed futures and the Winnipeg canola. The softer AUD will go some way to buffering the decline here, potentially countering about half the value of the downside at Winnipeg. Local merchants have been quick to follow futures lower though, so to see a flat canola market here would probably be a bonus.
Corn futures were a smidge firmer, still finding support from less than ideal weather in S.America. A quick look at World Ag Weather shows SE Brazil getting some good rain over the last 14 days while the central regions are mixed but generally a little dry. In Argentina 14 day anomaly maps continue to indicate very dry conditions across much of Cordoba and Santa Fe. The region affected by the dry weather accounts for as much as 40% of the Argentine corn crop. Buenos Aires is seeing rainfall at about average +/- but is not seeing a good enough season to counter the plausible decline in yields further north.
The dry weather in S.America continues to push export values for sorghum higher. Over the last week FOB prices for both Argentina and US sorghum has crept higher by roughly US$4.00 per tonne. Meanwhile Australian values have remained relatively flat to a little softer as harvest moves closer. This should see export demand remain very strong as sorghum here is much lower in price when compared to both US and Argentina.  The logistic issues here are continuing to keep basis to other exporters very wide though, roughly AUD$40 under Argentine values when prices C&F China.
Australian sorghum into China also stacks up very well in the feed ration against Russian barley at approximately US$317 C&F.