Wheat fell as crop prospects in the U.S., the largest shipper of the grain, improved after rain boosted soil moisture for winter varieties about to go dormant until spring.

 

The U.S. winter-wheat crop was rated 65 percent good or excellent as of Nov. 23, up from 44 percent at the same time the prior year, the Department of Agriculture said in a report on Nov. 24. As much as four times the normal amount of rain has fallen in parts of the southern Great Plains including Kansas, the biggest U.S. producer of the grain, in the past month, government data show.

 

“The crop’s looking good,” said Larry Young, a senior trader at Infinity Futures Inc. in Chicago. “They have ideal conditions, and I think we’ll have a good crop out there.”

 

Wheat futures for March delivery fell 0.75 cent, or 0.1 percent, to $5.52 a bushel at 10:24 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. Before today, futures tumbled 59 percent from a record $13.495 on Feb. 27.

 

High-quality hard winter varieties, used to make bread, are grown in the southern Great Plains from Kansas to Texas. Soft-red winter wheat is seeded mostly in the eastern Midwest from Arkansas to Ohio and used to make cookies and cakes.

 

The crop in Kansas was rated 74 percent good or excellent, up from 43 percent at the same time in 2007, USDA data show. In Oklahoma, the second-biggest producer, 63 percent of the crop earned top ratings versus 34 percent a year earlier, the government said.

 

Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $13.7 billion in 2007, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show.