Wheat Prices Hit Three-Year Low

Wheat trading on the Kansas City Board of Trade set a record Monday as prices dropped to a three-year low and the early harvest brought in better-than-expected results.

Tremors in the market also were felt in Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland, where the cash price of Pacific Northwest soft white wheat fell 12 cents a bushel to $4.13.

In Minneapolis, Septemberdelivered white wheat fell 8 cents to $3.88 per bushel; on the Chicago Board of Trade, September wheat futures sold for $3.37 per bushel, down 23 cents in 10 days.

An estimated 81.35 million bushels changed hands Monday on the KCBT, topping its April 11 record of 79.06 million, when a spring freeze loomed over the crop.

Large trading is expected as the harvest progresses into Kansas, the nation’s largest wheat state.

Some traders believe the winter wheat harvest could be 40 million bushels larger than the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1.60 billion-bushel crop estimate.