Corn and soyabean spot basis bids held mostly steady around the US Midwest on Friday as sharply lower soyabean futures and the lowest corn futures in about three weeks kept farmer offerings of the crops to a minimum, traders said. Corn bids tumbled by 20 cents per bushel at a processor just outside of Chicago, with the basis there giving back much of the steep gains seen earlier this week.
The advancing corn and soyabean harvests have weighed on bids at many locations in recent weeks, but farmers were storing as much of their supplies as possible in the hopes of selling at higher prices later this year. A dealer in Toledo, Ohio, said one farmer there sold roughly 10 truckloads of corn. "He sold because he doesn't have any more bin space. He wasn't happy that he was selling," the dealer said.
Soyabean bids weakened in Davenport, Iowa, along the Mississippi River, with barge freight costs rising sharply on Midwest rivers following a spike in farmer sales of soyabeans earlier this week. Shipping rates rose amid better demand for empty vessels to haul the soyabeans to export terminals along the US Gulf Coast.