HRW wheat bids steady

Cash bids for hard red winter wheat were steady in the US Plains on Friday, and delays in the harvest were making for a sluggish market, merchants said. Harvesting is under way in extreme southern Texas, but cutting will not start in more central and northern areas of that state for another week to 10 days, according to Mark Hodges, director of Plains Grains Inc, a regional growers' organisation.
Hodges said the 2013 HRW wheat crop in the central and southern portions of the country is significantly behind the average development stage for mid-May. The crop has been hurt by drought and a late freeze and some wheat fields have already been abandoned and/or baled. Protein premiums for railcar wheat to and through Kansas City rose a nickel a bushel for 11.40 percent protein wheat supplies, 2 cents a bushel for 11.80-pro wheat, and were unchanged otherwise.