US futures were higher on the back of positioning ahead of this week’s USDA report and disappointing rain across Iowa and Illinois this last week. Looking forward the US weather map shows the northern spring wheat region remaining dry which should see harvest pace increase there while good rainfall is expected across eastern Kansas and Missouri.
Most of the punters expect to see the USDA reduce yield expectations for corn, soybeans and wheat in Thursday’s report hence the buying in last night futures session.
The weekly US crop condition report came out after the close. It shows around 50% of the I states are dough stage. The condition rating only slipped 1% in the G/E rating though, now at 60%. The G/E rating for soybeans picked up 1% to come in at 60%, this may hinder further upside in beans tonight. Spring wheat was pegged at 27% harvested, a big increase on last week and 6% above the 5 year average. Condition rating for spring wheat actually jumped 1% to 32% G/E. The abandonment number for US spring wheat in this weeks USDA report will be the key to short term moves.
France came out with some bigger numbers for soft wheat and rapeseed overnight which some found surprising. Soft wheat was pegged at 36.78mt a 567kt increase and much larger than the rain reduced 2016 crop. Timely rain in June / July saw yields adjusted higher. Rapeseed saw a similar increase resulting in production of around 5.22mt. German rapeseed production is est. at 4.78mt.