Winter Wheat Conditions Unchanged

The grains are all trading lower in the overnight with corn down 3 3/4 cents, soybeans down 1 1/4 cents and wheat down 3/4 cents going into the pause. The U.S dollar is trading a fraction of a percent higher and crude oil is mostly flat after consolidating for the last couple days.

Crop conditions were released yesterday which showed that winter wheat rated good-to-excellent remained unchanged at 42 percent compared to last week. All other wheat rating categories stayed the same as well. This week’s crop progress report also highlighted the planting progress for spring crops. The most remarkable number was the amount of spring wheat planted. Spring wheat is now 36 percent planted compared to only 17 percent a week ago and a five year average of 19 percent. Corn planting seemed to disappoint analysts by showing only 9 percent had been planted, up from 2 percent last week and behind the five year average of 13 percent.

The avian flu is in the news lately with the Wisconsin governor declaring a state of emergency over the recent outbreaks in the state. The governor authorized the National Guard to help contain the flu and clean infected sites. Another bird flu instance was recently reported in a 3.8 million chicken flock inside Iowa. The birds were being raised by Sunrise Farms near the city of Harris. Since the beginning of the year the bird flu has been detected in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.

—Cody Bills