Generally international grain futures reversed the downward trend from the previous session. Both US wheat futures and Paris milling wheat closed higher, Paris up €2.75 / tonne in the Dec and March slots. Winnipeg canola and Paris rapeseed broke away from a weaker US soybean market, both exchanges closing with healthy gains in both nearby and outer month contracts.

US wheat futures found support from a few market tidbits, but the main driver appears to have been the worse than expected US new crop condition rating of just 38% G/E. With 80% of the US winter wheat acres now sown the rating will start to mean a little more, but the US crop is made or lost in their spring so as nice as it is to see a bounce on the back of this number, the real support will have to come in the form of export demand. US wheat export sales haven’t been bad, the last report showed a week on week increase of 6%.
Russia revised there October grain export volume, increasing it to 5mt. The more Russian wheat to hit the market now the better. This will help reduce new crop opening stocks and lower the global stocks to use projection in the long run. Hopefully pushing the ratio below 30%.

Rain may interrupt the US sorghum harvest this week. Sorghum exports out of the US we very low for the week ending Oct 17th, just 300t. Weekly US sorghum sales were very good though at 72kt, 55kt to unknown and 17kt to China. International sorghum values were mixed last night, generally trending lower in US dollars FOB the Gulf of Mexico. C&F China values were also a little weaker. Once these values are converted to AUD per tonne with this mornings weaker AUD there is little change in value here in AUD / tonne, if not potentially a little upside, especially when benchmarking off US corn values.
Sorghum sowing across eastern Australia is progressing well, complete in many locations and generally in very good sowing conditions this year.