KC wheat?

[furrowtickler]

Whats up with KC wheat, why the jump?

[charliep]

Only thing I can see in mornging comments is concerns about hot temperatures across Europes impact on yield prospects.

[boarderbloke]

Canada makes wheat deal with China

http://www.financialpost.com/Canada double wheat sales China/3237140/story.html

[NeilS]

Russia Grain Crops Brace For Hot, Dry "Sukhovei"

Tue Jul 06 10:45:48 2010 EDT

By William Mauldin
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russian grain crops, already falling victim to heat and drought, could face widespread annihilation if regional weather systems spawn a hot, dry wind known as a "sukhovei," forecasters said Tuesday.

The Russian problems, combined with hot-and-dry weather in Western Europe and excessive rainfall in Ukraine and Canada, have pushed wheat prices up 13% in the past week. Some speculative investors have also been forced to buy back futures previously sold short, lifting contracts to $5.14 1/4 a bushel Tuesday on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Derived from Russian roots meaning "blow" and "dry," the dust-laden sukhovei wafts across the steppes of Central Asia toward the European part of Russia and
Ukraine, withering crops in a matter of hours as the relative humidity falls
well below 30%.

Its danger to agricultural land is comparable with the southwest winds that sometimes blow across the Great Plains in the U.S., contributing to the Dust Bowl conditions in the 1930s.

A dozen Russian regions have already declared emergencies because of the
drought and heat wave, which officials said could limit Russian grain exports
this year to 20 million metric tons or less. In the Volgograd region alone,
temperatures rising as high as 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) helped destroy 511,600 hectares (1.3 million acres) of crops and kindle 47 forest fires.

"Conditions may be best for a sukhovei during the first half of this week," said Drew Lerner, head of Kansas City-based World Weather Inc. The Russian oat crop is most vulnerable, he said, as well as some of the country's spring wheat, sunflower seed and corn.

With much of Eurasia already hot and dry, all that's needed for a sukhovei,
similar to those that hurt crop yields in the 1980s, is a high-pressure system
on the east side of the Urals Mountains that would propel hot air from Kazakhstan across Russia and into Ukraine, Lerner said.

"We're definitely going to have the heat, we're definitely going to have the dryness, but we may not have the wind," Lerner said. "It's a possibility, but it's not something that's inevitable." Volgograd regional officials used the term "sukhovei" to describe present conditions in a press release Monday.

It is "clear" that crops will be affected by the heat and drought in Russia's Volga River region, said Dmitry Kiktev, deputy head of Russian forecasting service GidroMetTsentr. He declined to comment on the agency's internal estimates of crop loss, saying only that "we can't relax."

Russia's central European, Urals, and North Caucasus areas are also affected by the heat and drought. The country consumes 77 million tons of grain annually, and its current reserves have risen to 24 million tons, Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik told Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting Monday.

Meanwhile, the official 2010 harvest forecast was cut to 85 million tons
Monday from 90 million tons, compared with a yield of 97 million tons in 2009. If the weather cooperates, the projected harvest would allow Russia to export grain, most likely at high prices.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is currently suffering from too much rain. UkrAgroConsult, an agriculture consultancy, said Tuesday the wet weather across the country was
"extremely unfavorable for ****seed vegetation," slowing down harvesting and causing "high losses" of up to 30% of the planted area.

Rain is also affecting grain harvesting in the south of Ukraine, and the consultancy said Monday it may reduce its barley crop forecast by 200,000 to 300,000 tons, down to 10.8 million to 11 million tons.

-By William Mauldin, Dow Jones Newswires; 7 495 232-9192,
william.mauldin@dowjones.com

[furrowtickler]

Good find guys - thanks.