ALTHOUGH new crop feed wheat values have continued to be volatile over the last month or so, ex-farm prices have certainly improved over the last couple of weeks as this year’s Northern Hemisphere grain harvest gets underway.

In Southern Europe, the current hot and dry weather forecast is expected to stress both spring and winter crops. The French weather is a particular cause for concern at the minute; temperatures have peaked at 42 degrees this week, a 12 degree increase on average temperatures. Regardless, the French wheat crop is still expected to total 37.95 million tonnes.

About 20 per cent of the French winter barley crop has now been harvested and we have not yet been given any indication of yields or quality. We should have a better idea of this by the end of the week.

Elsewhere, German Crops are also suffering and the local agricultural ministry there have this week downgraded this years’ soft wheat crop by 10 per cent to 25 million tonnes. Expectations for this year’s OSR crop have also been reduced; five million tonnes is their latest estimate, a 19 per cent decrease on initial forecasts.

Here in the UK, AHDB has commented that "some cereal crops on lighter land are beginning to show visual symptoms of moisture stress" and are therefore expecting last week’s heat wave to bring a mixed response. Either way I think it’s safe to say that a good rain over the weekend would prove beneficial to many crops in our area.

Meanwhile, the weather isn’t the only concern regarding Europe at the minute and the on-going talks regarding the future of Greece are continuing to influence the market. The pound rose to 1.43 against the euro earlier in the week, a level we haven’t seen since early 2007. The situation is proving beneficial to the Paris wheat market, particularly given the local heat wave, but the Sterling/Euro exchange rate appears to be capping the potential of the recent weather-induced rally within the UK new crop wheat market.

For those of you looking to secure feed wheat for immediate collection off the combine at harvest, values have fluctuated anywhere between £120.00/T - £130.00/T ex-farm over the last seven days; perhaps a bid somewhere between the two should be worth some consideration?