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Higher soybean market sparks interest in 2017 sales.

Bob Burgdorfer, Senior Editor

December 5, 2016

2 Min Read

Farmers reacted to the recent rallies in Chicago’s soybean markets by selling portions of their 2017 harvests.

As local cash prices moved above $9.50, and in some cases neared $10, farmers booked 2017 sales, Midwest grain dealers said.

“We haven’t bought a lot today,” an Illinois dealer said Monday morning. “We bought quite a few beans last week during that rally. We are getting new-crop back up to $10 at the elevator.”

As of Monday morning, most of the interest was in selling new-crop soybeans, while corn sales were fairly light. Selling interest for corn may have improved later following Monday’s 11-1/2-cent jump in December 2017 corn futures.

weekly_grain_movement_dec_5_2016_1_636165566945148362.jpg

Cash basis bids for soybeans eased a little over the past week, but not enough to offset the gains in the Chicago market.

For grain dealers who ship out corn, the Southeast rail market has been competitive with local processors and trains have been sold there for January, February and March delivery. Soybeans continue to move by truck to local processors. By Monday, many of those processors appeared to have December needs covered.

Cold and snow are forecast for much of the Midwest this week, but dealers said the change in the weather should not affect operations.

At the Quad Cities, river shippers are quickly loading barges of corn and soybeans to get them going downstream before Friday when a number of key locks will close for the season.

Corn at the Gulf on Monday was bid about 45 cents over December for December shipment, compared with 35 a week ago, while soybeans were bid about 34 over January versus about 32 week ago.

Weekly data

Barge grain shipments during the week ended Nov. 26 totaled 1,248,198 tons, up 10% from the prior week and up 13% from a year ago. In the rail sector, grain car loadings totaled 25,916 for the week ended Nov. 19, down 3% from a week ago and up 20% from a year ago, said USDA’s grain transportation report said.

For truckers, the U.S. average diesel fuel price was unchanged in the latest week to $2.42 per gallon. That also is unchanged from a year ago.

USDA’s latest weekly grain inspections included corn at 45.7 million bushels, up 39% from a week ago and topped trade forecasts. Soybean shipments of 70.2 million were down 14% from a week ago and were at the high end of forecasts. Wheat shipments of 16.7 million were up sharply from a week ago and matched trade forecasts.

Weekly Grain Movement – Dec. 5, 2016

Weekly Grain Movement - Nov. 21, 2016 - Soybean processors raise bids to pull crop from storage

Weekly Grain Movement - Nov. 14, 2016 - River markets busy moving large harvests

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