US grain futures were generally flat to softer in overnight trade. One of the few exceptions was Kansas wheat, the hard red wheat contract, the grade most similar to our H2 grade.
The jump in price wasn’t spectacular only 2.75c/bu for HRW, or to you and me about $1.40 / tonne but it did go against the trend in the other wheat pits.
The USDA produced their first weekly crop condition report for their summer yesterday morning. Although all winter wheat was rated at 51% good to excellent, not a bad figure, it was actually a little lower than the bulk of the trade had expected to see and did highlight that the warm dry start to the thaw had indeed set the HRW crop back a little. Hard red states like Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma were all seeing fairly low G/E ratings, Ks 43%, Ok 41% and Tx 39%.  It’s early days though so don’t read too much into these reports until after the end of April.
Temperatures in central Kansas are expected to slip down to around 3C tonight but are predicted to stay mostly above 8C for the balance of the month with daytime temps in the mid 20s, ideal wheat growing weather. The week ahead also predicts more rain across much of Kansas and NE into the central corn belt before clearing. Showers are then expected to return to the HRW belt again around the beginning of next week.