Soybeans Rise as Wet, Cold Weather Threatens to Harm U.S. Crop

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans capped a third straight weekly gain, the longest rally since early June, on speculation that rain, snow and cold weather will extend U.S. harvesting delays, threatening to harm crop yields.

Three inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain and some snow fell in parts of the Midwest in the past two days and the region is facing cold, wet weather for the next two weeks, the U.S. National Weather Service said. The pace of soybean harvesting as of Oct. 18 was less than half the average for the previous five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week.

“It’s going to be very difficult to get back into the fields before November,” said Don Roose, the president of U.S. Commodities Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa. “Soybeans are more at risk of yield losses from snow and rain than corn.”

Soybean futures for January delivery rose 0.5 cent to $10.075 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier reaching $10.2925, the highest since Aug. 14. The most-active contract rose 3.1 percent this week and is up 14 percent since Oct. 2.

About 30 percent of U.S. soybean crops were harvested by Oct. 18, up from 23 percent a week earlier, USDA data show. In the previous five years, 72 percent of the crop was collected by the same time of the season.

Soybean output will jump 9.5 percent to a record 3.25 billion bushels this year from 2008, the USDA has forecast.

Valued at $27.4 billion, soybeans are the second-biggest U.S. crop, behind corn, according to the USDA. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer and exporter of the oilseed.