Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures declined on Wednesday on poor export sales of US wheat but the market found support from dryness in the US Plains that posed a threat to the 2013 US hard red winter wheat crop, traders said.
The US Agriculture Department's weekly crop progress report showed US winter wheat conditions 36 percent good to excellent, down from 39 percent a week ago and below the 50 percent good-to-excellent rating of a year ago. European wheat prices rose on Wednesday, supported by concerns that dry weather had been damaging US crops at a time of tight world supplies, with improved prospects for European wheat exports also underpinning.
Dry weather continues to draw down soil moisture reserves in the western portion of the US Plains hard red winter wheat region and no relief is in sight, an agricultural meteorologist said. "Still worried about the western Plains, there's no precipitation in sight for the next couple of weeks," said Drew Lerner, meteorologist for World Weather Inc. Lerner said it had been dry in that region for the past 30 to 40 days.