US soyabean futures eased on Tuesday after a US government report showed that farmers had increased their pace of harvesting what is expected to be a massive crop after a slow start, analysts said.Corn and wheat futures were close to unchanged, with the short-covering that boosted prices on Monday keeping the pressure off the market despite bearish reports from the field.
The soyabean harvest flooded country elevators and processors with supplies which pressured bids on the cash market and cast a negative tone on future prices. The US soyabean harvest was 70 percent complete, ahead of analysts' forecast of 64 percent, the US Agriculture Department said in its weekly crop progress and conditions report. That leaves farmers only 3 percentage points behind their five-year average.
At 10:21 am CDT (1521 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade November soyabean futures were down 4-3/4 cents at $9.76 a bushel. Soya futures held support at Monday's low of $9.75 a bushel. The corn harvest, at 38 percent complete, remained 21 percentage points behind the typical pace. Analysts had been expecting the corn harvest to be 44 percent complete.
But the USDA assessed 66 percent of the US corn crop as being in good to excellent condition, which compared with analysts' forecast of 65 percent. CBOT December corn was down 1/4 cent at $3.51 a bushel. The USDA said 75 percent of US winter wheat was planted, ahead of analysts' forecast of 73 percent. CBOT December soft red winter wheat was unchanged at $4.36-3/4 a bushel.