Soyabean prices rise on trimmed forecast Grain traders have successfully navigated the upheaval in commodities caused by the release for the first time in memory of sensitive monthly crop reports during dealing in US futures markets. The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday updated supply and demand estimates for crops including corn and cotton, lowering forecasts for US soyabean stocks and raising its outlook for world corn production. The agency also trimmed its view of the American winter wheat crop. The monthly estimates are among the the most closely monitored barometers of food commodities markets. US futures exchanges including the Chicago Board of Trade, a unit of CME Group, last month expanded hours to allow trading through the reports, ending a halt that previously surrounded the releases. The new schedule has been embraced by electronic traders seeking an immediate chance to seize on sensitive crop data and alarmed others concerned about sharper price swings. Prices wobbled as the reports appeared at 7:30am Chicago time, with corn futures ranging between $5.99 and $5.75½ a bushel within a three-minute span. Markets then assumed steadier footing. CBOT July corn later declined 1.7 per cent to $5.81¾ a bushel, CBOT July wheat fell 2.3 per cent to $6.15¾ a bushel and CBOT July soyabeans gained 0.6 per cent to $14.33 a bushel. "In some ways, I think it was more orderly than what you get sometimes on a 9:30 opening," said Jason Britt, president of broker Central States Commodities, referring to the previous reopening times at CBOT, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and the Kansas City Board of Trade. Stronger demand from domestic crushing plants and importers such as China led the USDA to project 175m bushels of old soyabeans would be left over before this year's harvest in the US, 16.7 per cent less than its previous forecast. The USDA reduced the estimated size of the American winter wheat crop by 1 per cent to 1.68bn bushels, a smaller cut than anticipated. In the coming year the agency sees lower world wheat production, "reflecting reduced crop prospects in several exporting countries" including Russia, Turkey, the US and wheat growers in Europe. However, global corn production would increase to a new record in the coming year, the USDA said. In the US, the biggest grower and exporter, corn stocks would next year more than double to 1.88bn bushels after farmers this year aimed to plant the most since 1937, the agency said. Analysts cautioned against reading too much into Tuesday's reports, as a more accurate picture of crops in the northern hemisphere will not emerge until later in the growing season. Richard Feltes, vice-president of research at futures broker RJ O'Brien, said in a note on Monday: "You don't pick the homecoming queen in the fourth grade."