There was some wild weather across the US Midwest over the last couple of days. Anything from huge hail to tornadoes popped up across parts of Nebraska and Iowa. There were reports of EF4 tornado near Lincoln Nebraska. Although tornado damage is very localised it can devastate any infrastructure in its path. Even with the storms, US spring wheat sowing progressed quickly and is now estimated at 34% complete. This compares well with the 19% 5 year avg and also the 10% sown for this time last year. With spring wheat emergence at 5% it is bang on the 5 year average.
Spring wheat futures in the US were a little firmer, gaining 4.25c/bu in the July slot, a much better result than soft red winter wheat and hard red winter wheat futures, both posting small losses.
The US weekly crop progress report now pegs Kansas HRWW at 33% in head and rated at just 31% G/E, a week on week decline in rating of 5pts, down from 36% G/E last week. The total amount of US winter wheat rated G/E last week was 50%, this week that total is 49%. Not a significant decrease week on week at the national level but significant for the HRWW belt. Oklahoma also seeing a 3pt decline on the G/E rating, while Texas improved 2pts, a move unlikely to counter the decline in the Kansas crop.
US corn planting is progressing nicely at a national level, 27% sown vs the 5yr avg of 22%. Soybeans are pegged at 18% sown vs 10%. Cotton 15% v 14%.

US wheat futures at Chicago took a breather, shedding some value overnight. Combining these moves with the stronger AUD see’s converted cash values for US wheat out of the PNW generally back AUD$2.00 to AUD$4.00. In contrast both US and Canadian spring wheat values were about AUD$4.00 higher. Black Sea wheat values fell away, both in USD and AUD, lower export taxes probably the main reason. The forecast for southern Russian & the Volga Valley is dry. Some Russian official now warning of drought persisting into May for this region. Turkey is expected to see some very good rain over the next 7 days.