Wheat futures rose, capping the fourth straight weekly gain, on speculation that U.S. production will decline as dry weather in the southern Great Plains hinders winter-crop seeding in the next two months. Southern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas will be mostly dry in the next six to 10 days, with only “a few light showers” and temperatures “above to well-above normal” in the west and south, Telvent DTN said in a report. Many areas had half of normal rain this year, according to the National Weather Service. Planting of the winter variety usually starts in September. “You hold out hope, but after nine or 10 months of below- normal rainfall, you start to wonder if it’s ever going to rain,” Jason Britt, the president of Central States Commodities Inc., a broker in Kansas City, Missouri, said in a telephone interview. “As each week goes by, I think we’ll ratchet up a little more weather premium” in prices, he said. Wheat futures for December delivery rose 22 cents, or 3 percent, to settle at $7.6125 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, capping the biggest gain for a most- active contract since Aug. 2. The commodity, up 4 percent this week, has climbed 10 percent since July 22. Winter wheat goes dormant after planting until February or March and is harvested beginning in June. Hard, red-winter wheat, the most common variety in the U.S., is used to make bread. National Australia Bank Ltd. cut its forecast for Australian wheat output to 21.8 million metric tons in the year beginning Oct. 1, or 12 percent below its estimate in April. Dry weather in the east may lower yields, the bank said. The Australian government’s crop projection is 26.2 million tons. The U.S. is the world’s biggest wheat exporter. The grain is the fourth-largest U.S. crop, valued at $13 billion in 2010, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show. To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in Chicago at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net

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