Spot basis bids for corn and soyabeans were mostly steady to mixed around the US Midwest early Thursday amid light to moderate farmer selling following Wednesday's strong gains in futures, merchants said. Soft red winter wheat basis bids were steady to firm but country movement was quiet, they said.
Wednesday's 10-1/4 cent rally in Chicago Board of Trade December corn futures and 12-3/4 cent jump in November soyabean futures sparked some farmer selling late Wednesday and early Thursday, grain dealers said.
But many farmers were too busy with their harvest to sell grain after recent rains had delayed harvesting in many areas, they said. Others were not interested in selling at current prices or waiting for further gains in futures before booking sales, they said.
"They're wondering why we're rallying. They're busy with harvest right now so farmers might wait a day on sales, hoping for it to go up even more," an Ohio dealer said. Warm, dry weather was forecast for most of the Midwest through next Tuesday so wet fields should dry out and harvest activity should pick up substantially, dealers said.
Trade sources said Informa Economics pegged 2006 US corn production at 11.151 billion bushels, above USDA's forecast in September for 11.114 billion. Informa Economics pegged US soyabean production at 3.206 billion bushels, above USDA's forecast in September for 3.093 billion. The US Department of Agriculture said on Thursday export sales of US corn last week totalled 1,158,300 tonnes, above trade estimates for 800,000 to 1,000,000 tonnes.
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