Spot basis bids for hard red winter wheat were steady to firm in the southern US Plains on Monday and farmer selling was minimal amid slumping wheat futures prices, grain dealers said. The track basis at the US Gulf firmed by 7 cents, to 104 cents over K.C. March hard red winter wheat futures. Basis bids elsewhere were unchanged.

Farmers have sold as much as they need to for the time being, and were unlikely to sell much ahead of key crop data due out Tuesday from the US Department of Agriculture. The USDA is scheduled to release its first estimates of US winter wheat seedings for 2016 harvest, along with its quarterly US grain stocks and monthly US and world supply/demand reports.

The average estimate of US 2016 winter wheat plantings among analysts surveyed by Reuters was 39.320 million acres, down from the 39.461 million planted a year earlier and the lowest since 2010. The average trade estimate for US Dec. 1 all-wheat stocks was 1.698 billion bushels, the highest in five years, if realized.

Copyright Reuters, 2016