LONDON: Chicago wheat futures rose on Wednesday, boosted by diminishing prospects for crops in the United States and Canada and a poor start to the harvest in Russia.

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) had risen 1.3% to $6.41-3/4 a bushel by 0958 GMT.

Dry, hot weather in US spring wheat areas and Canada has dented crop outlooks.

"Weather forecasters expect the crop damaging weather to continue in the US Northern Plains and Canada's Prairies," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said.

Russia's Sovecon agriculture consultancy said on Tuesday it had downgraded its forecast for the country's 2021 wheat crop by 2.3 million tonnes to 82.3 million tonnes after lower-than-expected yields at the start of harvesting.

US MIDDAY: Corn, soya and wheat up

CBOT corn fell 0.05% to $5.40-1/2 a bushel.

Dealers said the strong pace of China's imports had helped to support prices but there were concerns there could be a slowdown this quarter.

China imports of corn rose 318.5% to 15.3 million tonnes in the first half of 2021, according to customs data published on Tuesday.

Imports of soybeans rose by 8.7% to 49 million tonnes.

"Looking ahead, imports could soften over the third quarter of the year as weaker pork prices over the past few weeks will keep pressure on higher-priced grains demand with farmers likely to switch to cheaper alternatives," ING said in a note.

CBOT soybeans were 0.1% higher at $13.53-1/4 a bushel.

US soybean crushings likely dropped in June to the lowest in four months amid thinning supplies and scattered processor downtime, analysts said ahead of a National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) report due on Thursday.

NOPA members, which handle about 95% of all soybeans processed in the United States, were estimated to have crushed 159.483 million bushels of soybeans in June, according to the average of estimates from 12 analysts.