AS March draws to a close and spring begins to approach, values for both old and new crop wheat have gained about £10/T ex-farm since the beginning of the month.

Feed wheat for spot collection is currently valued in the region of £125/T ex-farm while movement further forward into the summer months is offering a couple of pounds per tonne more than this. £130/T ex-farm would be a realistic offer for July collection.

As for new crop values, £125/T ex-farm is currently offered for feed wheat for collection straight off the combine.

Further adjustments to currency appear to be predominantly responsible for the recent rally; a slightly weaker pound against the euro appears to have encouraged UK wheat values to follow the current rally in the French market.

French wheat exports are continuing to gather pace, as are European wheat exports generally.

Again, it is important to remember that foreign buyer interest is specifically for European wheat priced in euros; wheat priced in sterling looks rather uncompetitive in comparison.

Elsewhere, dry conditions across key US winter wheat regions are still raising cause for concern although opinion is mixed regarding the severity of the situation.

Many areas have received less than half of the typical rainfall throughout February and the trend appears to have continued into March.

Very light rainfall is forecast for the fortnight ahead and, while some believe that the dry weather should aid their spring sowing campaign, there are others who are convinced that the dry weather could be detrimental to both developing winter wheat crops and the establishment of various spring drilled crops.

Either way this will certainly be one to watch throughout the course of April.

Meanwhile, this year’s South American soybean harvest is progressing well and although both logistical issues and the threat of wet weather had initially granted cause for concern, yields are said to be on track for a potentially record harvest this year.

However, local OSR values have remained buoyant due to good export demand – something which could become limited once the above stock begins to flood the oilseeds market.

For those of you with old crop OSR in the shed, the current offer of £255 to £260/T ex-farm for spot collection should be given some consideration.