Wheat declined to the lowest in almost four weeks after as much as six times the normal amount of precipitation fell in parts of the southern Great Plains of the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of the grain. Snow or as much as 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain fell in the driest parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, the biggest U.S. producers of winter wheat, and Texas in the past week, National Weather Service data show. The weather recharged soil moisture for plants emerging from winter dormancy. Little or no rain fell in the region in the previous three months, the data indicate. “We’ve got this much-publicized rain and snow event and that’s what has caused our pressure in the wheat market,” said Larry Glenn, a Frontier Ag analyst in Quinter, Kansas. “We had a rally up built on some weather premium and a fair amount of snow fell in the Plains states and took that out.” Wheat futures for May delivery fell 2 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $5.0525 a bushel at 10:32 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade after earlier touching $5.01, the lowest since March 3. The most-active contract sank 7.8 percent last week as rain and snow fell in the southern Plains. A blizzard on March 27 that dropped snow and rain in parts of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, and in the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, will benefit crops, Minneapolis-based DTN Meteorlogix LLC said today in a report. The storm will boost “moisture for wheat as the snow melts during the coming days,” the private forecaster said. “Cool to cold temperatures will slow development of wheat. However, damaging cold is not expected.” Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at $16.6 billion in 2008, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show. The U.S. is the world’s biggest wheat exporter.

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