Soybean processors raised basis bids 4 to 5 cents a bushel in the past week to pull supplies from storage as farmers have been content to wait before selling more, grain dealers said.

Soybeans may start moving from storage and into market channels this week as higher basis plus the strong gains in Monday’s soybean futures raised cash prices enough to more than offset storage costs, dealers said.

Corn is more available to end users as the huge harvest filled on-farm and off-farm storage. Farmers have delivered the overflow to exporters and processors. Also, as corn processors have reduced hours of operation, farmers have had to find other outlets for the grain.

“A lot of overrun in the corn is coming to the river,” said a Quad Cities shipper.

The Mississippi River near the Quad Cities is expected to close to navigation for the season about Dec. 9 and the shipper said his company will be loading corn and soybean barges until then. While CIF values for soybean have dropped in the past week, they have held fairly stable for corn.

Corn at the Gulf on Monday was bid about 44 cents over December for December shipment, compared with 43 a week ago, while soybeans were bid about 32 over January versus about 42 week ago.

Barges have been easily moving upstream and downstream this past week. Barge rates moved lower in the past week as supplies appear to be sufficient for demand.

In central Illinois, the southeast rail market has become competitive with local processors for corn, while soybeans are still going to local processors.

Weekly data

Barge grain shipments during the week ended Nov. 12 were 1,313,240 tons, up 10% from the prior week and 71% from a year ago. In the rail sector, grain car loadings totaled 28,655 for the week ended Nov. 5, up 22% from a year ago, said USDA’s grain transportation report said.

For truckers, the U.S. average diesel fuel price dropped 3 cents in the latest week to $2.44 per gallon. That is 4 cents under a year ago.

USDA’s latest weekly grain inspections included corn 34.5 million bushels, which were up 28% from a week ago and matched trade forecasts. Soybean shipments of 97.95 million were down 9% from a week ago and beat trade forecast. Wheat shipments of 15.8 million were up sharply from a week ago and missed trade forecasts.

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

Weekly Grain Movement - Nov. 7, 2016 - Corn piles up as harvest winds down