Once again weather is an issue across regions trying to harvest crops. Snow in the US and Canada is halting combines, while there was some rain in drought-stricken Australia before fires broke out this weekend.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) crop progress report released on November 4 showed that 52% of corn had been harvested in the main producing region. This is 23% behind the five-year average of 75% for the time of year.

47% of corn was also reported to be in good condition, 29% in fair condition, while 11% was reported to be in excellent condition. 13% was reported to be poor (10%) or very poor (3%).

The US soybean harvest is reported to be 75% complete, 12% behind the five-year average for the time of year.

Snowfall

Snowfall has halted the harvest in some of the northern states of the US, while on Thursday morning, November 7, farmers across Canada woke up to snowfall, some of which was extremely heavy, which stopped their corn harvest.

Australian harvest

Rain in parts of Australia has come too late for the wheat and barley harvest. Rain in New South Wales last weekend flooded farms in some areas which haven’t seen rain in five years.

According to Reuters, INTL FCStone estimates Australian wheat production at 15.54 million tonnes. That’s 19.1% lower than the official Australian estimate of 19.2 million tonnes.

Grain markets

UK wheat prices have continued to gain this week, no doubt helped by uncertainty over 2020 winter planting.

Winter cereal plantings are dramatically behind in the UK. Reports by some UK visitors to the BioFarm conference this week suggested that just 50% of the expected acreage has been planted.

Also Read: Winter planting hopes dashed – 35-80% planted

While nearby prices have been rising, November 2020 wheat stood at £159/t on Friday afternoon, November 8. That’s an increase of £6.50/t on the same day last week.