Spot basis bids for corn and soyabeans held mostly steady around the US Midwest on Monday, supported by slow country sales of each crop as farmers remained busy in the fields and balked at lower overnight futures trade, dealers said. Farmers in the eastern part of the region took advantage of the mostly dry and warm conditions over the weekend and made progress in catching up in the behind-schedule corn plantings.
Sunday was the deadline for corn plantings in several Midwest states for farmers seeking full insurance protection by declaring they are unable to plant corn this year. However, preventive planting claims are expected to be lower than feared earlier this season due to the beneficial planting conditions in recent days.
Farmers in southern Ohio, the state furthest behind on corn plantings, were nearly done seeding the crop, a dealer there said. USDA will update planting progress at 4 pm EDT (2000 GMT). Weather this week in the Midwest expected to stay largely favourable for spring plantings, a forecaster said Monday, and many farmers are likely to delay sales of deliveries of old-crop supplies as they work fields.
Corn bids rose by 3 cents at western Indiana ethanol plant and by a penny on the Mississippi River while soya bids also climbed on the waterway. CBOT corn and soyabean futures seen opening lower on pressure from better planting weather and lower crude oil futures. CBOT corn was called to open 8 to 10 cents per bushel lower, soyabeans down 6 to 8 cents and wheat down 10 to 13 cents.