CHICAGO, June 20 (Reuters) -
Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures slid on Thursday as forecasts for heavy rains alleviated concerns about a heat wave in the central U.S. stressing crops.
With the CBOT reopening after the Juneteenth public holiday, July soybeans were down 10 cents at $11.64 per bushel at 11:00 A.M. CDT, 16:00 GMT while corn dropped 5-3/4 cents at $4.44-1/4.
The heat is "more of an issue for people right now than crops," said Karl Setzer, partner at Consus Ag Marketing.
"When corn is knee-high, it's pretty hard to stress," he said.
Rains are expected in the 6-15 day period in the central U.S. according to Commodity Weather Group, with the heaviest rains in the Northwest Midwest in the next two weeks and showers to the south and east in the 11-15 period.
The precipitation forecast for corn and soybean growing areas actually creates ideal growing conditions, Setzer said, while it would take weeks of prolonged heat to see negative impact.
In wheat, forecasts for rains in Russia and crop estimates revised upwards also pressured prices, with consultancy IKAR saying on Wednesday that it had raised its forecasts for the country's wheat crop to 82 million metric tons from 81.5 million tons.
Frosts and dry weather in Russia, the world's biggest wheat exporter, had led to severe harvest downgrades that raised global prices, but rain this month has eased concerns.
But, said Bill Lapp, founder and president of Advanced Economic Solutions, "a little bit of improvement in expectations for the Russian crop probably has helped give some negative spin on this."
In Argentina, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange also bumped up its forecast for wheat planting, saying that higher wheat prices and lower input costs were pushing more farmers to sow the crop despite dryness in some areas.
July Chicago wheat lost 6-1/2 cents at $5.75-1/2 a bushel. (Reporting by Renee Hickman in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio)
