By Gary Wulf

  of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


  SUPERIOR, Neb. (Dow Jones)--Farm-gate prices paid for cash supplies of US
hard red spring wheat now stand at a 26-month low, barely exceeding $5.00 per
bushel, compared to nearly $9.00 on this date one year ago.

  "The USDA repeated its generally bleak assessment of the wheat market
Wednesday," noted eHedger analyst Justin Kelly. "World ending stocks rose again
to 187.56 million tons [6.89 billion bushels] - a fresh 8-year high - while
demand remains patchy, due to the tattered feeding industry and broad global
economic malaise."

  Elevator bids for hard/soft red winter wheat are also floundering at 8-month
lows.

  Cash soybean prices also reside at a 2-week low, after briefly exceeding $12
a bushel in some sections of the US interior, earlier this week. Spot soybean
futures dropped about 12-16 cents a bushel overnight, even though cash-contract
declines in corn/wheat were generally limited to 1-3 cents.

  "We have conditions and forecasts necessary during the final stages of the
growing season to at least have hope of favorable or exceptional final
[soybean] yields," said Early Market News analyst Duane Lowry. "This sets the
stage to allow a seasonal price-weakening event that could easily exceed what
current rhetoric suggests."

  Domestic basis values were mixed in quiet trading Friday, featuring firm
premiums for grain sorghum and hard red winter wheat, but weaker cash bids for
soybeans and other classes of wheat.

  National cash price indices maintained by the Minneapolis Grain Exchange
reside at $10.97 1/4 for soybeans, reflecting an average basis premium of 78
1/2 cents to Thursday's settlement of Nov CBOT futures. Domestic cash prices
also average $3.03 1/2 for corn (-21 cents basis Sep CBOT), $4.34 1/2 for hard
red winter wheat (-74 cents basis Sep KCBT wheat), $3.66 1/2 for soft red
winter wheat (-$1.15 basis Sep CBOT wheat) and $5.04 1/2 for hard red spring
wheat (-46 cents basis Sep MGE wheat).


  Crop Weather


  Rain was largely concentrated in the northern Great Plains Friday, although
Freese-Notis Weather said an advancing cold front will bring widespread
precipitation to South Dakota, Minnesota, western Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas and northwestern Missouri by the end of the weekend.

  "It should be easy to find rainfall amounts in that area of more than 1.00
inch through the next three days, though certainly some places will be gauging
more than 2.00 inches," said the service. "With much of that same area destined
for rain again for about Wednesday/Thursday...it still looks like the next week
will feature the type of rains in the western Corn Belt that will 'finish off'
the crops ahead of the time when they start to mature."

  Freese-Notis said the driest area of the Midwest is currently the northern
half of Indiana and northwestern Ohio, "an area that has largely seen under 25%
of normal rainfall here in the first two weeks of August."