-US winter wheat conditions mostly tick higher
-USDA reports corn sold to China
-US corn planting off to solid start in south
-Brazil sees good soybean harvest/safrinha corn planting week
-Argentina still on tap for decent rains
 Weekly winter wheat crop condition updates from the central/southern plains showed improvements for KS and OK and steady conditions in TX. Specifically, KS conditions improved to 38% good/excellent from 36% last week (46% g/e last year), while OK improved to 57% g/e from 53% g/e last week (67% g/e last year) and TX held steady at 27% g/e (36% g/e last year). Colorado’s first spring update put conditions at 25% g/e vs 19% g/e at the end of February and last year’s 46% g/e at this time. KS reported topsoil moisture was 24% short, a sharp drop from 47% the previous week. For SRW, Arkansas’ first spring update put the crop at 53% g/e vs 49% g/e at the end of last fall (late Nov) and 39% g/e last year, while MS put the crop at 53% g/e vs 54% last fall and 40% g/e last year. LA put the crop at 38% g/e vs 83% good last fall and 52% g/e last year.
ï‚· Corn planting in TX was reported at 26% complete vs 10% last week and 26% average. LA corn is 14% planted vs 5% average, MS 1% planted vs 1% avg and AR 1% planted vs 0% average.
ï‚· USDA reported the sale of 1.156 MMT of corn to China for 2020/21 delivery this morning as a long-awaited announcement was finally made.
ï‚· Brazil saw another respectable soybean harvest week, now at 46% complete vs 34% last week and compares to 55% average and 59% last year. Mato Grosso is 80% complete, finally nearly catching up to average of 88%. Safrinha corn planting jumped to 72% complete from 50% last week and compares to 90% average and 87% last year. Mato Grosso is 83% planted vs 98% average.
 Russia said they are prepared to consider other approaches to grain export intervention, including fully eliminating intervention altogether, “as soon as the situation stabilizes†but for now need to continue limiting exports.
 Germany’s association of farmer cooperatives expects a small 1% increase in the country’s wheat crop this year to 22.34 MMT, while the winter rapeseed crop is expected to tick lower by 0.7% from last year to 3.48 MMT. The winter barley crop is expected to rise 2.7% to 9.1 MMT.
 Pakistan’s recent tender for 300k tonnes of wheat saw the lowest offer for April shipment at $323.97/tonne c&f, while the lowest offer out to August shipment was $285.97/tonne c&f.
Weather
Argentina saw rains of .30-.80†across the northern ½ of La Pampa and Buenos Aries, as well as the southern ½ of Santa Fe and Entre Rios yesterday. Over the next five days, widespread (near 100% coverage) rains of .75-1.5â€+ are expected. An additional .50-1â€+ is expected in all areas in the 6-10 day period, as well, with the exception of Buenos Aries which looks dry for the period.
In the Southern Plains, the next low will form by tonight and tomorrow and will bring totals of .75-1.5â€+ to the SE ½ of KS, as well as most of the panhandles of TX and OK. Totals in the rest of KS, OK and TX look to be in the .25-.75†range. Another round of moderate to heavy rains is expected for much of NE and the eastern 2/3-3/4 of KS, OK and TX early/mid next week.
Dry weather dominated most of RGDS, Santa Catarina and Parana, with totals of .25-.75†in most of Mato Grosso and generally less than .25†in MGDS, Goias, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo yesterday. Dry weather looks to occur across most of Minas Gerais, with totals of 1-2†in Mato Grosso and Goias and totals of .75-1.5†in the rest of the Brazilian growing regions this week. The 6-10 day outlook remains mixed with the GFS indicating rains of 1-2†to fall in RGDS and Santa Catarina with .50-1†in Parana, Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso, northern Goias and southern Minas Gerais, with things fairly quiet elsewhere. The European sees rains of .50-1†for RGDS and Santa Catarina, with generally less than .40†elsewhere.