Nogger's Blog

02/05/11 -- May Paris wheat was up EUR2.50/tonne to EUR247.00/tonne whilst new crop Nov was EUR41.75/tonne lower at EUR214.00/tonne.

London wheat was closed whilst Paris and Chicago were open for the second session in a row. That leaves London with some catching up to do in the morning.

It's been another largely dry and warm weekend for much of Europe. Crop development is running 3-4 weeks ahead of normal, whilst the lack of rainfall means that nitrogen uptake has been limited.

In the UK, April rainfall was only around 35% of normal at less than 20mm, according to ADAS. Anyone who manged to get 20mm may be patting themselves on the back, as only 3.8mm was recorded just down the road from me last month, and 3.2mm of that fell in the first week of the month.

Whilst the rest of this week looks set to remain largely dry, one weather service is citing above normal precipitation in it's 6-10 day forecast for the UK, France and Germany. Let's hope that they are right.

News of the probably death of Osama Bin Laden, and a similar fate for one of Gaddafi's sons over the weekend shook the oil market, which was over USD2/barrel lower at one stage.

In the US, corn planting is well behind schedule. The USDA will report on exactly how far behind after the close of Chicago tonight, although planting prospects have improved somewhat latterly.

"Conditions this week will warm up nicely in the Great Plains, reaching the upper 60s- 70s F on several days in Nebraska and western Iowa. It is a good omen for spring wheat field work and corn planting. Temperatures would continue below-normal in the Eastern Midwest and Great Lakes, however, with a chance for scattered showers," say Martell Crop Projections.