Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures rose Thursday on technical buying including short-covering, coupled with worries about the size of the hard red winter wheat crop in top producer Kansas, traders said. CBOT July soft red winter wheat settled up 11-1/4 cents at $5.38 per bushel after reaching $5.38-1/2, the contract's highest since August 1. K.C. July hard red winter wheat ended up 12-1/2 cents at $5.67-3/4 a bushel and MGEX July spring wheat rose 5-1/2 cents at $6.30.
Scouts on the Wheat Quality Council's annual Kansas crop tour estimated the state's winter wheat yield potential at 37.0 bushels per acre, below the five-year crop tour average of 40.98. The USDA reported export sales of US wheat in the week to April 26 at 445,100 tonnes (old and new crop years combined), in line with trade expectations.