Spot basis bids for corn were steady to firm around the US Midwest on Monday, while soyabean bids were mostly unchanged, grain dealers said. Country movement was scattered, with some farmers in Iowa booking light sales of soyabeans. Sales of both corn and soyabeans were slow in the eastern part of the region.
Most farmers were anxiously waiting for their fields to dry out so they could resume much delayed planting tasks. "They are probably not interested in selling anymore until they get it planted," a dealer in northern Ohio said.
A few farmers were able to plant corn on Monday following dry and sunny weather over the weekend. But scattered storms were predicted for much of the region in the coming days, which could sideline growers once again.
The US Agriculture Department said on Monday that 23 percent of this year's corn crop had been planted, up from 11 percent last week but well below the five-year average of 42 percent. Traders had been expecting corn planting to be between 30 percent and 35 percent complete. Soybean planting was 3 percent complete compared with the five-year average of 7 percent, USDA said.
The US winter wheat crop was rated 56 percent good to excellent. Traders have been closely watching the condition of the winter wheat crop to gauge the extent of damage that cooler-than-usual weather in April caused.
Shipping costs were mixed on Midwest rivers. On the Illinois River, barges were bid at 210 percent of tariff, up 5 percentage points from Friday's level. But bids for barges fell 5 percentage points to 170 percent of tariff on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Barge bids held steady at 190 percent of tariff on the lower Ohio River.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, the May corn futures contract fell 6-1/4 cents to $3.58 per bushel as improving planting weather sparked speculative selling. July corn futures dropped 6-1/4 cents to $3.67-1/2 per bushel.
CBOT May soyabean futures rose 5-1/2 cents to $7.28-1/2 per bushel on prospects for fewer US soyabean acres. July soyabean futures closed up 4-1/2 cents at $7.43 a bushel. CBOT May wheat futures fell 15 cents, or 3 percent, to $4.85-1/2 a bushel.
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