Snow cover in US insulates wheat crop

LONDON: US crops are escaping record-setting cold weather with little damage.

Snow cover helped insulate wheat plants, according to DTN/Progressive Farmer. “The worst of it has gone by, especially in the Midwest,” Claudio Oliveira, the head of trading at Castlestone Management in New York, said. “I do expect grain prices to come off now.” Temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit probably caused “little significant damage to wheat crops” from southern Illinois to Ohio overnight, Joel Burgio, senior agricultural meteorologist for DTN/Progressive Farmer, said on Wednesday. “It’s highly unlikely that widespread damage occurred because of the snow cover,” Dave Marshall, a farm marketing adviser for Toay Commodity Futures Group, said. “Wheat is a hardy plant, and this year’s crop had good growth before entering dormancy to withstand the cold weather better”.

About 62 per cent of the plants were in excellent condition at the end of November, according to the USDA. But the winter chill hit hard red winter wheat, with cash basis bids for it flat across the US Plains on Wednesday. The temperatures were still slowing deliveries of wheat to processors and elevators.

The hard red winter wheat crop is at risk to winterkill, but farmers will not be able to assess the extent of the damage until spring.