CHICAGO: Spot basis bids for corn and soybeans were sharply higher at some locations around the US Midwest on Wednesday as end users for the commodities bid aggressively for the remainder of last year's harvest, dealers said.

But bids overall were quietly steady with many buyers content to wait until harvest in about a month.

There was little farmer selling of other crop as buyers delayed old- and new-crop dealings in the hopes of higher prices.

A 100-car unit train was said to have traded this week at $3.00 per bushel above September futures for delivery this month into Hereford, Texas, which would be the largest premium ever above futures at that location, cash sources said.

Corn bids were sharply higher at a processor near Chicago and along the Mississippi River at Davenport, Iowa, with bids supported by the smallest stockpile in 16 years as well as a late-developing Midwest corn crop.

A closely-watched processor in Decatur, Illinois, rolled its corn bid to December corn futures from the September contract and kept its basis bid the same - in effect reducing the price they were willing to pay for the grain by the 23-spread between the contracts.

Soybean bids gained 18 cents at a processor in Sioux City, Iowa, with existing soybean supplies the smallest in nine years, according to the US Agriculture Department.

Barge freight costs were steady on Midwest rivers, holding after rising earlier this week on growing demand for empty vessels ahead of the harvest