CHICAGO: US grain and soyabean futures fell on Wednesday as the markets consolidated after rallying in the previous session.

Strength in the US dollar weighed on prices, analysts said, because a firm dollar makes American farm products less attractive to importers.

For soyabeans, there was a “lack of fresh supportive news and demand from China after returning from their Lunar New Year holiday,” CHS Hedging said in a note.

China, the world’s top soyabean importer, is expected to increasingly buy soyabeans from Brazil, where rains are delaying harvests, rather than the United States, which will harvest its next crop in the autumn.

The most-active soyabean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was down 4-3/4 cents at $14.07-3/4 a bushel as of noon CST (1800 GMT), after climbing 1.5% on Tuesday.

The contract had touched its highest since June 2014 last week at $14.45-3/4 as the rain delays to Brazil’s harvest fanned worries about tight short-term supplies of the oilseed.

Analysts still expect Brazil to harvest a record crop.

“The persistent rains in Brazil still cause consequent delays in both the soyabean harvest and the corn sowing,” consultancy Agritel said in a note. “In Argentina, on the other hand, the water deficit remains dominant.”

CBOT corn was down 10 cents at $5.35 a bushel while wheat was off 11 cents at $6.55-1/4 a bushel.

Traders on Thursday will review weekly export sales data from the US Department of Agriculture.

US soyabean sales in the week ended Feb. 25 are expected to total 100,000 to 800,000 tones, according to analysts. Weekly sales are estimated at 450,000 to 1.05 million tonnes for corn and 100,000 to 600,000 tonnes for wheat.

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