Spot basis bids for corn were steady to mixed in the US Midwest interior on Monday and farmers in some areas were selling supplies of old- and new-crop corn, but the offerings were scattered, dealers said. Margin calls were limiting the amount of corn that some grain elevators were able to purchase and hedge.
Front-month Chicago Board of Trade corn futures matched an all-time high price of $7.65 a bushel before settling at $7.60-1/4, sparking farmer selling. The corn basis firmed by 3 cents at Blair, Nebraska, but the basis fell 2 to 3 cents at Decatur, Illinois, and Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Interior soyabean basis bids were mostly unchanged and soya sales were quietly steady. River bids for both corn and soyabeans were higher, buoyed by a drop in barge freight costs. Barge freight fell as elevators were able to continue loading on the Upper Mississippi River despite high water, one grain merchandiser said. Barges for this week on the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, were offered at 475 percent of tariff, down 35 points from Friday.
Farmers were applying fertiliser in some areas over the weekend, including parts of Missouri and Illinois, but rains stalled fieldwork in the eastern Midwest. The Corn Belt was seen turning mostly clear until Thursday, when light to moderate rains were expected, with heaviest amounts in the east.
CBOT May corn futures rose 24-1/4 cents to settle at $7.60-1/4 per bushel on outlooks for tightening US corn supplies and fund-driven technical buying. CBOT soyabeans fell as concerns about a slowdown in US soya exports offset spillover strength from corn.
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