Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Wheat: No Rain Yet for Next Year's Russian Crop

Folks, this could get serious. This year's crop failure would just be a blip on the charts if next years crop comes in but if they don't get rain in the next few weeks....
The futures have been generally up the last week or so, closing yesterday at $7.46.
From MarketBeat:
Whither Wheat? Or Wither Wheat? Either Way Watch Russia
Russian farmers need rain to help ensure the seeds they plant now result in a good harvest next spring.
Last week we profiled Vladimir Klevtsevich, who said he was rolling the dice on rain. Acknowledging his “big risk” he was simply planting seeds in dry soil in the hope he’ll get some rain, or at least find enough moisture deep in the earth, to form a decent crop.

Those kinds of bets are looking riskier with each dry day. Less than 30% of the land set aside for planting winter crops has gotten enough rain, Dow Jones Newswires reports, citing data from Russia’s Hydromedcenter weather forecasting service. And the services says things aren’t looking good.
“On the whole, the situation will not change very much between now and the end of the month,” a spokeswoman for the service told Dow Jones Newswires....MORE