CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) – U.S. wheat surged on Tuesday, with benchmark futures at the Kansas City Board of Trade climbing in the morning to the highest level in seven weeks on concerns scouts on an annual crop tour will find freeze-damaged fields in the top growing state of Kansas.
“Traders are hesitant to be sellers as they expect damage reports to come out of the crop tour. The crop tour is keeping sellers on the sidelines,” said Shawn McCambridge, analyst for Jefferies Bache.
December Kansas wheat closed at 812.75 cents per bushel, up 12.5 cent or 1.56 percent.
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Minneapolis spring wheat hit its highest level since Feb. 8 on worries about planting delays in the northern U.S. Plains.
The annual Wheat Quality Counci hard red winter wheat tour started from Manhattan, in northeastern Kansas, with scouts finding wheat that is one to two weeks behind normal development and yield prospects slightly below last year.
Experts on the tour said scouts were likely to find fields damaged by freezes this spring in the western part of the state.
“You’re seeing the good stuff,” said Mark Hodges, executive director of Plains Grains Inc, who is on the tour.
The tour concludes on Thursday in Kansas City, where scouts will project yield and production for Kansas.
CORN SLIDES
Corn futures fell even as forecasts for snow and rains in the U.S. Midwest were likely to stall spring plantings that are already advancing at the slowest pace in history.
Futures for the yellow grain soared 6 percent on Monday, rising the most since last July during the summer rally in which the worst drought since 1934 propelled corn and soybean prices to all-time highs.
Now, one of the wettest springs in history is delaying plantings but also replenishing soil moisture while growers are likely to respond to the historically high prices by increasing acreage.
The U.S. Agriculture Department in March estimated corn plantings as the biggest since 1933.
“Yesterday’s rally was overdone,” said Sterling Smith, a futures specialist for Citigroup.
U.S. farmers had planted only 5 percent of the corn crop as of Sunday, matching 1984 for the slowest planting pace ever.
Heavy rains and as much as a foot (30 cm) of snow is forecast beginning on Tuesday, a meteorologist said.
“They (farmers) certainly won’t get much done this week. There is a big storm system starting Tuesday that will spread in intensity and coverage by Thursday and linger into the weekend,” said Don Keeney, a meteorologist for MDA Weather Services.
Keeney said snow could be expected from Nebraska, eastern Colorado, Kansas into the northern Midwest with up to a foot of snow possible in western Iowa. “Elsewhere they’ll receive heavy rains of 2.0 to 3.0 inches or more,” he said.
