US wheat futures jumped on Wednesday, led by K.C. hard red winter wheat, on disappointing early yield reports as the harvest rolled into southern Kansas, the top-producing state, traders said. CBOT wheat rose on short-covering as the K.C. and MGEX markets advanced. CBOT July wheat is oversold following a plunge of more than 20 percent since early May amid hefty world supplies and stiff competition for global export business.
The Kansas Wheat Commission said in its first harvest report of the season that early yields in far southern Kansas were averaging about 10 to 12 bushels per acre, far below the US Department of Agriculture's statewide Kansas yield estimate of 29.0 bushels per acre. Traders expect yields to improve as the harvest moves northward. Concern persists about the quality of the soft red winter wheat crop due to recent wet conditions in the southern Midwest and the Mississippi River Delta. The European Union's MARS crop monitoring unit raised its estimate of the bloc's average soft wheat yield to 5.81 tonnes per hectare, from 5.79 last month.
