Net US export sales data show good volume for corn, 2.125mt booked, that is well above the average trade guess leading into the report, which was only 1.6mt. Soybean sales volume was ho-hum at 351kt, in the middle of the pre-report trade estimates. Wheat was terrible, as expected. The pre-report estimates came in at between 0-200kt, the USDA number coming in towards the high side, at just 166kt for the week ending 14th May.
Obviously corn futures fell away on the back of the news ???? Sorghum values FOB US Gulf were a smidge higher, but nothing to write home about.

The eastern hard red winter wheat belt in the US saw 20-50 mills this week. This should help any spring sown grains, like sorghum and corn in Kansas. Oklahoma and Texas, but is unlikely to assist the hard red winter wheat crop. Too little too late. Rainfall also moved across the N.American spring wheat belt with some much needed rain across both N.Dakota and S.Saskatchewan. The falls were less than perfect though, many locations seeing less than 10mm. As of the 18th of May around 73% of the spring wheat crop was in the ground. N.Dakota made good progress going from 42% sown in the previous week to 66% complete. Some nice falls were reported across the far NW of N.Dakota and some were lucky enough to pick up 25-30mm towards the SE, but generally falls were lighter than 10mm across N.Dakota.

The French soft wheat crop is rated 80% G/E, winter barley 76% G/E and spring barley 86% G/E. French corn sowing has almost come to close and the corn crop is rated at 90% G/E. I continue to find these condition ratings amazing given the early spring dryness across much of France. Over the last 14 days France has seen roughly 5-10mm of rain across most of their wheat country. The week ahead is expected to be dry across not only France but most of Germany and half of Poland too, the big three EU wheat producers. Romania, the no4 producer is expected to see 30-50mm of rain. Keep an eye on this.