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CBOT wheat ends with minor gains, follows corn

CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures closed higher, supported by gains in corn and by poor crop conditions in the hard red winter wheat areas of the Great Plains, traders said.

Wheat probably had the lightest trading volume among CBOT corn, soybeans and wheat, traders said. Much of the late gain appeared to be on scattered local short covering.

"Wheat is a feed product at this point and will go where corn wants to go," said Todd Goll, vice president of ABN-AMRO.

Low prices have livestock producers using wheat in feed rations, he said.

Forecasts call for scattered rain next week in the Plains wheat areas, which will add to the rain that fell there this week. Much of the wheat from Kansas to Texas was still struggling after a dry fall and traders remain hesitant to sell futures much lower until they can be assured the remaining crop is out of danger.

Wheat condition reports released late Monday showed a slight improvement in the hard red winter crop, but much of it was still in poor condition.

In top producer Kansas, as of Sunday, wheat was rated 41 percent good to excellent, 40 percent fair, 15 percent poor and 4 percent very poor.

In Texas, crop conditions improved slightly from the previous week but were still worse than in Kansas. As of Sunday, the crop was rated 9 percent good, 29 percent fair, 35 percent poor and 27 percent very poor versus the previous week's 7 percent good, 28 percent fair, 30 percent poor, and 35 percent very poor.

CBOT soft red winter wheat closed up 2-1/2 to 1 cent with May up 2 at $2.61-3/4 per bushel.-Reuters