Nogger's Blog

28/05/12 -- EU grains finished mixed but mostly a little lower on the day with Jul 12 London wheat up GBP2.00/tonne to GBP177.00/tonne, and with new crop Nov 12 down GBP0.50/tonne to GBP159.00/tone. Nov 12 Paris wheat was down EUR0.50/tonne to EUR216.00/tonne.

It was a very quiet day with the US and much of the continent closed for our traditional public holiday which has been delayed to coincide with the Queen's Jubilee celebrations next week.

Mixed reports continue to come out of Russia and Ukraine. The Ukraine national weather centre say that the winter grain harvest there will be 43% down on last year at 14.5 MMT, with winter wheat yields likely to average 2.6 MT/ha - that's a near 22% decline on last season, although marginally better than the 2.45 MT/ha that the USDA predict.

The Ukraine Ag Ministry meanwhile say that crop conditions have improved on the back of recent rains and they now rate 71.5% of the winter wheat crop as good/satisfactory.

Russia appears to have had scattered, buy heavy in some places, rains in recent days.

In Kazakhstan meanwhile spring grain planting is more than three quarters complete.

Crops in the UK, France and western Germany will be benefiting from the recent warmth after a good soaking in April and early May, although the eastern half of Germany and Poland are said to be too dry.