Corn spot basis bids gained by 4 cents per bushel along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers on Thursday, boosted by recent higher basis values in the CIF barge market and as rising river levels may soon slow barge shipments, grain merchants said. Heavy rainfall this week in parts of northern Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin flooded some farm fields. Stretches of the Mississippi River were predicted by the National Weather Service to reach moderate flood stages in the coming days, while smaller tributaries could rise to major flood stages.
A Cargill grain facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stopped accepting deliveries of corn following the heavy rains, the company said on its website. Bids for barges of corn bound for the US Gulf Coast export market climbed to a roughly two-week high amid the rising waters as well as strong export demand.
Farmers in parts of the Midwest were harvesting the earliest maturing corn and soyabean fields, but the growers were delivering the crops to satisfy existing contracts and making few new sales, the dealers said. Soyabean bids eased by 4 cents along the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa, and were largely flat elsewhere, stabilizing after widespread declines earlier this week due to harvest pressure.