Spot cash basis bids for corn and soyabeans were mostly steady to weak in the US Midwest interior on Friday as harvest picked up in some areas, helping to replenish supply pipelines, dealers said. The soyabean basis fell by 10 cents at Decatur, Illinois, and by 7 cents at Des Moines, Iowa, two soya processing locations. The corn basis fell to 5 cents over CBOT December futures at Blair, Nebraska, a drop of 15 cents since the start of the week.
The corn harvest was in full swing in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa but yields were variable, dealers said. River corn bids held steady but the soya basis fell by 2 cents at one location on the Illinois River. Barge freight costs were steady to higher, supported by a shortage of empty barges.
Barges for the week of September 9 were offered at 600 percent of tariff on the Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois, and Memphis, Tennessee, up from 575 percent a day earlier. Farmers in northern Ohio were preparing to harvest corn and inquiring about fees to dry their grain, a dealer said. Drought this summer has hurt corn stalk quality and prompted some plants to drop ears, giving farmers an incentive to harvest quickly and dry the grain as needed.
The average estimate of US 2012 corn production among 20 analysts surveyed by Reuters ahead of the USDA's September 12 supply/demand report was 10.380 billion bushels, down from the USDA's August forecast of 10.779 billion. The average estimate of US 2012 soyabean production among the analysts was 2.657 billion bushels, slightly below USDA's August forecast of 2.692 billion bushels.