Wheat rose to a two-month high after a government report showed adverse weather in the northern U.S. has deteriorated spring crops. About 62 percent of spring wheat, grown in northern states, was in good or excellent condition as of Aug. 21, less than a week earlier and below the year-earlier rating of 82 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday after the close of trading in Chicago. Excess rains during planting, hot weather and disease have pressured yields, the North Dakota Wheat Commission has said. “The spring-wheat crop has really struggled all year long,” said Louise Gartner, the owner of Spectrum Commodities in Beavercreek, Ohio. “Yields are coming in light. Although quality is decent, you’re seeing a drop in total spring production.” Wheat futures for December delivery rose 18.5 cents, or 2.4 percent, to settle at $7.845 a bushel at 1:15 p.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade, after touching $7.865, the highest for a most-active contract since June 13. The price is up 8.1 percent in the past year. About 20 percent of German wheat was left in fields as of yesterday because of excess rainfall, curbing the crop’s quality, the U.K.’s Home-Grown Cereals Authority said in a report. Texas A&M University said today that the crops farmers will plant in September and October may not emerge from the soil if fields don’t get rain. “We do have dryness in the Plains and concerns around the rest of the world,” Gartner said. “It’s raining on the German harvest, and that’s where the high-quality wheat in Europe is grown. They’ve had rain on the Chinese wheat harvest and persistent drought in some Russian growing areas.” The U.S. is the world’s biggest exporter of wheat, the country’s fourth-largest 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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