The question of how the grains (especially front-end corn) would respond to Friday post-USDA reversals were answered overnight, with “mostly to plan”; less traumatic weather (be it too late or not) has arrived to settle things down, with a fresh S&D table written in ink for another month.

The Czech Statistics Office reported the country’s 2012 grain harvest at 5.716 million tonnes today, down 21% from last year’s 7.2 MMT crop and the worst since 2007. The Ag Secretary of the Philippines estimated 2012 corn production at 7.46 MMT, up 7% from last season.

The Argentine government ended a key tax break for the country’s biodiesel exports, raising the export tax to 32% (the same as soybean oil) from 20% previously. Industry execs say Argentina’s position as the world’s #2 biodiesel producer and #1 exporter will be placed in jeopardy following the move

Friday’s CFTC Report showed higher net fund longs than the trade was expecting for the grains, with specs adding nearly 10k net corn on the week, versus estimates for around a 15k net loss. Soybeans lost over 10k net contracts, though that was also almost 15k above the trade guess. The Disaggregated Report showed other traders adding the majority of the corn contracts—up 14,654 net on the week, with the other three categories (producers, swap dealers, managed money) slightly lower on the week ending last Tuesday.

Matt Zeller