Farmers were mostly done with harvest and were now tilling fields and applying fertiliser. The newly seeded US winter wheat crop was off to a good start, but dry weather had slowed germination in a few areas, including parts of Arkansas, Texas and Oregon, crop experts said.
Grain dealers did not expect to see much farmer selling of corn or soyabeans until later this year.
"If it's in storage already, that's where it's going to stay for a while," said an Illinois dealer.
River bids for corn rose 5 cents per bushel and soyabean bids were up nearly 10 cents on Wednesday. The end of harvest reduced demand for barges, which helped lower freight rates.
Barges on the Mississippi River at St. Louis traded at 400 percent of tariff on Wednesday, compared with 525 percent last week. During the peak of harvest, barges traded at more than 900 percent - about three times more than at the same time last year.
Barges on the Illinois and lower Ohio rivers traded at between 400 and 450 percent on Wednesday, compared with between 450 and 525 percent last week and 850 percent at the height of demand.
The high barge rates were partly caused by Hurricane Katrina damaging part of the barge fleet and a lack of manpower to load and unload barges at the US Gulf.
The US Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday it will spend $7.6 million to unload barges carrying hurricane-damaged grain and return them to service.
While barges were getting easier to find, rail cars were still in high demand.
Many railroads lowered fuel surcharges by about 1 percentage point for December shipments and surcharges were expected to fall further next year.