Commodity funds were early buyers, with Citigroup, Fimat Futures and Calyon among the buyers of January, traders said.
November soya was up 7-1/4 cents at $5.72 per bushel, while January was 7-3/4 higher at $5.83-3/4 by 10:20 a.m. CST (1620 GMT).
January met resistance at $5.84-1/2, just below its 20-day moving average of $5.86-1/2.
The market was higher despite fears about reduced soyabean and soyameal demand due to the spread of bird flu in Asia and Europe and expectations that the USDA will lift its US soya stocks estimate in its Nov. 10 crop report. The expected increase reflects a lagging export pace from a year ago, along with prospects that the US soyabean harvest is bigger than last month's projections had it.
The US soya harvest was nearing completion. USDA said late Monday that 92 percent of the US soyabean crop was harvested, up from 87 percent last week and above the five-year average of 86 percent.
Meteorlogix weather on Tuesday said wet weather may slow the tail-end of harvest in the eastern Midwest later this week.
Soya registrations with the CBOT increased to 1,572 lots from the previous 1,132. There was generally satisfactory crop weather in South America, allowing for farmers to plant soyabeans.
Overnight export business featured Taiwan setting a tender on Wednesday to buy 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of US soyabeans.
The soya products were firm, following soyabeans. Soyameal was seeing an added boost from technical buying by commodity funds, traders said. CBOT December soyameal was up $3 at $172.70 per ton, with the deferreds up $2.60 to $3.80
CBOT December soyaoil was 0.11 cent per lb higher at 22.97 cents, with the back months 0.04 to 0.26.