Cash basis bids for hard red winter wheat were steady in the US Plains on Thursday with concerns persisting about dry conditions in the region. A drought report issued Thursday by a consortium of state and federal climatologists said that the week ended March 11 saw below-normal precipitation throughout the Central and South-Central Plains.
The most precipitation for the region for the week was between 0.25 and 1.0 inch of precipitation measured from central Oklahoma north-east into south Missouri, and in the central High Plains near the Colorado Rockies. Severe drought expanded in central Nebraska, and 60-day and 90-day precipitation totals are only half of normal for the south-central Plains, the Drought Monitor report said. Protein premiums for railcar wheat to and through Kansas City fell 4-10 cents a bushel for 11.20 percent protein wheat through 12.60-pro wheat.