Hard red winter wheat cash basis bids in the southern US Plains held steady on Tuesday with farmers tracking wheat ratings while overlooking a slight bump in futures prices, merchandisers said. US winter wheat was rated 59 percent good-to-excellent, up 2 percentage points from a week earlier, the US Department of Agriculture said on Monday. Analysts had expected wheat to be 58 percent good-to-excellent. Protein premiums for railcar wheat to and through Kansas City on Monday were unchanged, according to the latest CME Group data. At 12:09 pm CDT (1709 GMT), K.C. May wheat was up 1-1/2 cents at $4.64 per bushel.