Weather issues that could reduce the ratio of milling to feed - or at least lower quality - wheat in this year's expected big crop have re-ignited a firm market for the grain on both sides of the Atlantic this past month.The first standout event has been the failure of key North American hard spring wheat crops in the wake of severe droughts and heat-waves.At one point recently just nine percent of these were in 'good-excellent' condition versus over 70 percent last year, while the 'poor/very poor' component expanded to two thirds. Hard spring accounts for almost 30 percent of US output and exports and isdepended on by consumers blending up quality of flour made predominantly from lower grade milling wheat.US traders were initially surprised at the extent to which the USDA slashed its crop forecast for this class to just 8.3m tonnes compared with last year's 14.4m but there may be worse to come. Despite better US winter wheat prospects, USDA has cut its total US wheat production estimate from US51.7m tonnes in June to 46.2m by August.
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