Some 20 miles away, at a research center in Junction City, scientists are developing hybrid wheat seeds that promise higher, more consistent crop yields as drought becomes more common across the Plains.

Taken together, the experiments could change the future of the struggling U.S. wheat industry, which is being threatened by shifting consumer trends and the rise of lower-cost global rivals eroding America’s export dominance. The U.S. economic prospects for wheat, a crop that’s been cultivated for 10,000 years, hang in the balance.

Wheat not ‘technified’

When it comes to technology, for decades wheat has been the horse-and-buggy to its sports car brethren, corn and soybeans. And American farmers have been growing less of the crop, sometimes planting it only in rotation with other crops to preserve soil health.

But hybrid wheat is finally becoming more widely available, and genetically modified varieties may launch in the U.S. within a few years. The push represents a bet that the science will arrive in time to make it profitable enough to matter for growers.

“Wheat hasn’t been, for lack of a better word, a technified crop,” said Jon Rich, Syngenta’s hybrid wheat operations head, who has spent years developing the product.

Wheat buyers have been more resistant to GMO wheat due in part to consumer skepticism, while most GMO corn and soybeans are used as feed for animals.

Shrinking demand

Once the world’s top wheat exporter, the U.S. has not held that title since 2017, according to federal data. Farmers are grappling with a three-decade downtrend in per-capita flour consumption, a trend reinforced by the Trump administration’s new federal dietary guidelines and the rise of gluten-free diets.

Things are trending differently in Canada, where mills produced 2.68 million tonnes of wheat flour in 2025, a 7.7 per cent increase over 2024 levels.

Wheat industry millers and scientists who gathered for an annual meeting last month in Olathe, Kansas, said the new guidelines stigmatize grain-based foods, further diminishing the market.

“The fact that we are having to say ‘bread is real food’ – it’s unfortunate,” said Jane DeMarchi, president of the North American Millers’ Association.

The United States became a corn-growing behemoth in part due to an early 20th-century breakthrough that has eluded wheat: hybrid seeds, which yield more grain even under stressful conditions such as drought. Average U.S. corn yields rose from around 25 bushels an acre in the 1930s to 186.5 bushels in 2025.

Corteva says it ‘cracked the code’ on hybrid wheat

Creating a hybrid wheat seed isn’t as simple. The seeds and plants are much smaller than corn and have more complex genetics, making hybridization efforts costly for companies to develop and sell.

But recent scientific advances in DNA sequencing have lowered costs for breeders, triggering a boom in research and commercialization efforts. Seed and chemical companies Syngenta and Corteva are pushing forward in the U.S., projecting billion-dollar payouts – eventually.

Chuck Magro, Corteva’s chief executive, says the company has “cracked the code,” and that its hybrid hard red winter wheat used to make bread can increase crop yields by 20 per cent. Corteva plans to release the seed commercially in the U.S. in 2027.

Syngenta, the Swiss agrichemicals and seeds group of China’s state-owned Sinochem, has been selling hybrid spring wheat seed to farmers in the northern Plains states since 2023, reaching 12,000 to 15,000 acres in 2025. Still, that’s a fraction of the 45 million U.S. wheat acres seeded annually.

Syngenta and Corteva also are working on other hybrids, including for soft wheat used in pastries and Asian-style noodles, in coming years. But it’s a gamble if farmers will be willing to pay for seeds that can cost twice as much as conventional offerings.

GMO crops

The vast majority of U.S. corn and soybeans are grown from genetically modified seeds that offer built-in herbicide tolerance and resistance to yield-robbing pests. That is one hope for wheat too, scientists said, and GMO technology could eventually offer traits that boost nutrition or grain quality, too.

“Anything that gives our producers an advantage can improve profitability – that would be welcome,” said Allan Fritz, a longtime wheat breeder with Kansas State University.

The plants in the Manhattan, Kansas, lab have been genetically modified with a drought-resistant trait known as HB4, developed by Argentina’s Bioceres Crop Solutions, and bred to tolerate a particular herbicide not currently used on wheat. While that grain was approved for U.S. production by the USDA in 2024, none has been planted on U.S. fields.

Genetic lines of wheat vary by region, so public university researchers are testing whether the HB4 traits will function in wheat grown in the U.S. Plains. Field trials are still at least two years away, according to Brad Erker of the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation, a farmer-governed trade group that has partnered with Bioceres to commercialize HB4 in the U.S.

Selling GMO wheat seed is even further off, by 2030 or 2032 at the earliest, Erker said, and will only occur if major buyers of U.S. wheat, such as Japan and Mexico, agree to allow purchases.

“That’s part of the goal with this, to make it more attractive to grow wheat,” said Erker. “We don’t have GMO technology for our farmers in wheat, and corn and soy and sunflowers and sugarbeets and cotton all do.”

—With files from Glacier FarmMedia

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Canola prices are up as China followed through on its promise to reduce anti-dumping duties after Canada eased steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. While not zero, tariffs of just under 15 per cent make it possible to restore trade flows and maintain China as Canada’s second-largest canola customer.

As well, Canada’s prime minister was recently in India on another diplomatic defrosting mission that had positive implications for agricultural exports. Any time the world’s largest exporter of pulse crops like peas, lentils and chickpeas can make inroads into the world’s biggest market for those commodities, the sun shines a little brighter.

While more sales to India weren’t on the agenda, talks between Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi still showed progress. Among the dozens of outcomes was an agreement to jointly develop an India-Canada Pulse Protein Centre of Excellence, with a goal to advance co-operation in value-added agriculture and food innovation.

Collaboration and co-operation on trade don’t erase the diplomatic tensions with either of these global giants, but whenever there is conversation, there are opportunities for finding more common ground.

There are even hints of trade talks resuming with the U.S. to determine the future of the all-important trade deal that allows most agricultural products to flow between the two countries tariff-free. While farmers can be under no illusion that these talks will adhere to common-sense principles, at least they are happening.

So, things were indeed looking up.

Then the U.S and Israel launched their offensive against Iran. While the rationale and the timing for this conflict remain openly debated, many doubt this will be over any time soon.

Of direct concern to farmers across North America is the significance of the Strait of Hormuz to the world’s fertilizer and fuel supply chains. Fertilizer and fuel account for more than 40 per cent of a grain farmer’s annual operating costs.

Around 20 per cent of the seaborne oil and up to one-third of global trade in urea passes through the strait, which has effectively been closed due to the threat of missile strikes. Prices have spiked, jarring the global economy and threatening to wipe out any income gains with much higher costs.

The fighting has also shut down key nitrogen fertilizer production facilities as sources of natural gas are cut. There are reports the conflict has shuttered three of the world’s largest urea exporters and three of its largest anhydrous exporters in Qatar, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Fertilizer prices were already at historical highs last fall, which left farmers with the dilemma of taking the hit then — and hoping they didn’t feel like a fool if prices dropped — or waiting, and hoping they didn’t feel like a fool if prices rose higher in the spring.

Analysts believe there is likely enough fertilizer in position to get farmers through seeding. The main effect will be on the cost for any supplies not yet priced and for supplies going forward.

Securing the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipments will take more than rhetoric and promises. Merely the threat of attack is enough to give commercial shippers pause. Military escorts tie up critical naval forces indefinitely and, although they offer protection, there are no guarantees of safe passage. As well, placing naval resources in those waters makes military personnel sitting ducks — which ups the political stakes.

Pollsters say American voters didn’t support this war in the first place. Their appetite for putting troops on the ground is even lower. How does a rising body count play out in the approaching mid-term elections, especially considering the data that shows disproportionate number of military recruits come from the same rural areas that form the Republican base?

The point is, even the instigators are now acknowledging this is more complicated than it first seemed.

Once again, farmers are caught in the crossfire through no doing of their own.

What really burns is that there isn’t a darn thing farmers can do about it — except build a wider margin for geopolitical risk into their game plans.

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It’s obvious to Rob Graf, and many others in Canada’s grain industry, that the country needs a new system for developing cereal crop varieties — one that attracts private investment while preserving public programs for crops too small to interest a company’s bottom line.

Graf is a winter wheat breeder who spent 35 years in public plant science, retiring from Agriculture Canada in 2022. He knows better than most what’s at risk.

“One of the things that concerns me (is) those crops that have lower acreage. How are those going to be funded? How are new varieties going to be developed?” he said.

WHY IT MATTERS: Grain farmers will soon need answers to Graf’s questions. A February report from the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition says the status quo — a public breeding system dominated by Agriculture Canada — is no longer a viable path forward. Federal plans to close research centres and lay off scientists are accelerating the timeline for change.

For decades, growers have relied on Agriculture Canada scientists to develop the latest varieties of spring wheat, durum and other cereals. The coalition’s February report found that Ag Canada varieties are grown on about 80 per cent of all wheat fields in Canada every year.

“It’s clear that the status quo is not a viable path forward,” says Jocelyn Velestuk, Canadian Wheat Research Coalition chair.

The public approach has delivered strong varieties to farmers, but in the last 15 years, the system has grown progressively weaker. It will soon be further undermined as the federal government plans to close research centres and lay off employees in its science and technology branch.

There are real-world examples of what happens when government stops investing in crop breeding. Flax is the clearest cautionary tale.

About 20 years ago, there were three flax breeding programs in Canada. Now, there’s one at the University of Saskatchewan. Without the breeders to improve yields, flax acres on the Prairies collapsed.

Other factors contributed to flax’s decline — competition from the Black Sea region chief among them — but poorly funded breeding programs and flat yields didn’t help.

What a new system could look like

Creating a new system to fund cereal breeding will not be easy. But a transition needs to happen, particularly for spring wheat, said Richard Cuthbert, a former wheat breeder with Agriculture Canada in Swift Current, Sask.

The public breeding system is currently handicapped by an insufficient number of test sites for small plot trials — sites that should cover a range of growing conditions across Western Canada. Without those sites and the related data, developing a competitive spring wheat variety is extremely difficult.

The crops that could fall through the cracks

Graf spent the bulk of his career working on winter wheat — a crop seeded on 300,000 to 350,000 acres on the Prairies. That is a small fraction of the 19 million acres of spring wheat grown in Canada, and a tiny sliver of the 65 million acres of all Prairie crops.

Winter wheat covers the soil through fall and spring, offering real environmental benefits — erosion control, early ground cover, reduced spring runoff. But its small acreage makes it a poor candidate for private investment.

“Will anybody be interested in developing winter wheat? We simply don’t know,” Graf said.

For now, the question is hypothetical — Agriculture Canada still has a winter wheat breeding program. But Graf’s concern applies to any specialty or low-acreage crop that lacks the commercial scale to attract private investment once the public system retreats.

“What we really need is a system where private and public can co-exist,” Graf said.

Key takeaways

• Agriculture Canada varieties cover 80 per cent of Canada’s wheat fields — but that dominance is built on a system the industry itself says in no longer sustainable.

• The federal government plans to close research centres and cut scientists, accelerating the timeline for change.

• Flax acreage fell 67 per cent over 20 years — partly a result of underfunded breeding. That pattern could repeat in other crops.

• Low-acreage crops like winter wheat may not attract private investment, creating a gap no one has a plan to fill yet.

• Industry leaders say the future requires private and public breeding to co-exist — but what that looks like is still unknown.

Read the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition’s February 2026 report.

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The loonie climbed more than six-tenths of a cent, making wheat and durum more expensive for export customers.

For daily markets coverage, visit the Western Producer markets desk

Those declines were tempered by gains in the United States wheat complex.

Canadian Western Red Spring

Average CWRS (13.5%) prices gave up 30 cents to C$2.90 per tonne, according to price quotes from a cross-section of delivery points compiled by PDQ (Price and Data Quotes). Prices ranged from about C$260.20 per tonne in southeastern Saskatchewan to C$287.60 per tonne in southern Alberta.

Quoted basis levels varied from location to location and ranged from C$31.60 to C$58.90 per tonne above the futures when using the grain company methodology of quoting the basis as the difference between the U.S. dollar-denominated futures and the Canadian dollar cash bids.

CWRS basis levels

When accounting for currency exchange rates by adjusting Canadian prices to U.S. dollars (C$1=US$0.7371), CWRS bids ranged from US$191.80 to US$212.00 per tonne. That would put the currency-adjusted basis levels at about US$16.70 to US$36.80 below the futures.

Looking at it the other way around, if the Minneapolis futures are converted to Canadian dollars, CWRS basis levels across Western Canada ranged from C$12.30 to C$27.10 below the futures.

Canadian Prairie Spring Red

Average CPRS (11.5%) wheat prices stepped back 30 cents to C$4.50 per tonne. Bids ranged from C$236.40 per tonne in southeastern Saskatchewan to C$262.90 per tonne in southern Alberta.

Canadian Western Amber Durum

Average CWAD prices were down 30 cents to C$4.70 per tonne. Bids ranged from C$278.50 per tonne in northwestern Saskatchewan to C$294.50 per tonne in western Manitoba.

U.S. wheat futures

The May spring wheat contract in Minneapolis, which most CWRS contracts Canada are based off of, was quoted at US$6.3500 per bushel on March 10, advancing 21.75 cents on the week.

The Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures, which are now traded in Chicago, are more closely linked to CPRS in Canada. The May Kansas City wheat contract was quoted at US$6.0875 per bushel on March 10, jumping 30.50 cents.

The May Chicago Board of Trade soft wheat contract settled at US$5.9100 per bushel March 10, gaining 17 cents.

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There are suggestions that more spring wheat will be planted this spring compared to that seeded in 2025/26. Statistics Canada is set to release its initial 2026-27 seeding estimates on March 5. About 20.6 million wheat acres (except durum) are expected to be planted, compared to 20.5 million last year. Forecasts for durum, of 5.8 million to 6.4 million acres, were lower than last spring’s 6.532 million.

The Canadian Grain Commission reported wheat exports for the week ended Feb. 22 at 408,300 tonnes, greater than the 220,300 tonnes shipped the previous week. So far this marketing year, 12.645 million tonnes of wheat have been exported, compared to 11.531 million tonnes shipped at the same point one year ago.

Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat was up C$2.00 to C$5.40 per tonne, according to price quotes from a cross-section of delivery points compiled by PDQ (Price and Data Quotes). Average prices were between C$260.70/tonne in southeast Saskatchewan to C$289.60 in southern Alberta.

Quoted basis levels ranged from between C$39.70 to C$68.60/tonne above the futures when using the grain company methodology of quoting the basis as the difference between the U.S. dollar denominated futures and the Canadian dollar cash bids.

Accounting for exchange rates and adjusting Canadian prices to U.S. dollars (C$1=US$0.7308), CWRS bids were from US$190.50 to US$211.60/tonne. Currency adjusted basis levels ranged from US$9.30 to US$30.40 below the futures. If the futures were converted to Canadian dollars, basis levels would be C$6.80 to C$22.20 below the futures.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prairie Red Spring (CPRS) prices gained C$4.00 to C$10.50 per tonne. The lowest average bid for CPRS was C$240.50 in southeast Saskatchewan, while the highest average bid was C$265.40 in southern Alberta.

The average prices for Canadian Western Amber Durum (CWAD) were up C$2.70 to C$3.40 per tonne with bids between C$282.80 in southwest Saskatchewan to C$294.80 in western Manitoba.

The May spring wheat contract in Minneapolis, which most CWRS contracts are based off of, was quoted at US$6.1325 per bushel on March 3, up 17.75 cents.

The Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures, which are now traded in Chicago, are more closely linked to CPRS in Canada. The May contract rose 11.25 cents at US$5.7825/bu.

The May Chicago soft red contract was up 0.75 of a cent at US$5.74/bu.

The Canadian dollar tacked on 0.13 of a cent to close at 73.08 U.S. cents on March 3.

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The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition, which represents farmer-led organizations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, has concluded that Canada’s wheat breeding system is “no longer working.”

In a report published Feb. 26, the CWRC said farmers and other players need to join forces and build something better.

“Securing the future of wheat in Canada requires a reimagining of our wheat breeding innovation system,” says the report.

“The CWRC has a lead role to play in securing the future for wheat in Canada and is currently exploring options to transform the wheat breeding innovation system.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Wheat (spring wheat and durum) is the largest acreage crop in Western Canada and farmers rely heavily on varieties developed by Agricutlure Canada scientists.

Jocelyn Velestuk, who chairs the CWRC and farms near Broadview, Sask., said it’s unclear what transforming the system will look like, but it will be a collaborative process.

“We will be including stakeholders,” she said.

The CWRC, a coalition of Alberta Grains, SaskWheat and the Manitoba Crop Alliance, began working on the wheat breeding report last fall.

It evaluated the current system, which is dominated by breeding programs at Agriculture Canada.

Every year, about 80 per cent of all wheat fields in Canada have an AAFC variety.

Much of the coalition’s work and consultations with 29 stakeholders was done before late January, when Agriculture Canada announced cuts and closures of research centres across the country.

In its report, the CWRC described the five steps in the wheat breeding process:

• foundational science
• germplasm enhancement
• variety development
• pre-market evaluation and testing
• commercialization

The weakness in Canada’s system are steps three and four, Velestuk said.

“The places we found the biggest gaps were in variety development and pre-market evaluation and testing.”

That’s partly explained by federal budget cuts in 2012 when Agriculture Canada closed a research centre in Winnipeg and testing sites in Manitoba and Regina.

“(A) loss of 60,000 plots and reduced (the) number of early generation breeding lines under evaluation,” the report says.

Breeder says change is needed

Richard Cuthbert, a former wheat breeder with Agriculture Canada in Swift Current, Sask., says the public system to develop wheat varieties has lost “capacity.”

The number of small plots for testing potential varieties across a wide a wide range of geographic, climate and soil types in Western Canada has shrunk over the last 15 years.

A breeder needs sufficient data from dozens of sites and hundreds of thousands of small plots to make informed choices and bring game changing varieties to market.

“It’s a fact that we need more capacity and capacity is costly,” said Cuthbert, who resigned from Agriculture Canada in January.

“That’s been lost along the way… (and) taken for granted that small plot (research) will just happen. Disease nurseries (will) just happen. Quality testing (will) just happen.”

What’s next?

The CWRC plans to play a lead role in what happens with wheat breeding in Canada. There are funding agreements in place with Agriculture Canada and universities on the Prairies to continue breeding and varietal development research until 2028.

The immediate next steps are conversations between the Wheat Research Coalition and Agriculture Canada, Velestuk said.

Growers, breeders, seed companies and others will be part of the discussions to design a new funding model and approach to breeding and varietal development.

How that will turn ou, is hard to say, but the final line in the CWRC report delivers a clear message.

“The future of wheat breeding in Canada is in the hands of farmers.”

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CWRS

Average CWRS (13.5 per cent) wheat prices were up by C$6.30 to up C$8.10 per tonne, according to price quotes from a cross-section of delivery points compiled by PDQ (Price and Data Quotes). Average prices ranged from C$256.40/tonne in southeastern Saskatchewan to as high as C$286.70/tonne in southern Alberta.

Quoted basis levels varied from location to location and ranged from $43.50 to $73.80/tonne above the futures when using the grain company methodology of quoting the basis as the difference between the U.S. dollar denominated futures and the Canadian dollar cash bids.

When accounting for currency exchange rates by adjusting everything into Canadian dollars (C$1=US$0.7295) CWRS basis levels ranged from C$2.80 to C$18.90 below the futures.

CPSR

Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheat bids were also higher, gaining C$3.70 to C$6.00 per tonne, with prices ranging from C$233.50 to C$258.20 per tonne.

Durum

Average durum prices held closer to unchanged, down $0.30 to up C$2.40 per tonne. Durum prices ranged from C$280.10 to C$292.00 per tonne.

Futures

MIAX spring wheat futures gained 11.25 cents per bushel in the March contract to settle at US$5.7950/bu. on Feb. 24.

Hard red winter wheat futures were up by 15.50 cents in the March contract on the week at US$5.5425/bu.

The March Chicago soft wheat contract was up 29.75 cents at US$5.6750/bu.

The Canadian dollar was down by a quarter of a cent relative to its U.S. counterpart at 72.95 U.S. cents on Feb. 24.

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Scott Capinegro, hedging specialist for AgMarket.net, said May corn was approaching a February low but is setting itself up for a March rally. As for wheat, he said funds were short and technicals were conducive for rallies the past week.

Soybeans’ rise can be attributed to rallying soyoil, of which the May contract had a weekly gain of 1.58 cents per pound. But the White House is expected to announce its biodiesel fuel blend in the coming days.

“That one could end up being ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact,’” he said. “We’re racing to meet a self-imposed deadline by the end of March. We’ve already put that rally into the market.”

Exports also should be giving support to corn and soybeans, said Capinegro.

“The corn exports continue to be good, but the corn market does act sloppy. We are breaking to the lower end of the range (in March corn). As for soybeans, it’s China, China, China,” he said, adding that the U.S. is waiting for Lunar New Year celebrations to end before shipping more beans to China.

The United States Department of Agriculture will host its 2026 Agricultural Outlook Forum from Feb. 19 to 20 in Arlington, Va. Capinegro said many are expecting projected corn acres to be trimmed while those for soybeans are raised. However, one grain’s loss could benefit two major crops.

“Are they taking into consideration (the loss) of a lot of rice acres down south?” he said. “They’re going into corn and beans.”

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A firmer tone United States wheat complex offered support, as did the Canadian dollar which lost six-tenths of a cent on the week.

CWRS

Average CWRS (13.5 per cent) prices were 30 cents lower to C$1.70 per tonne higher, according to price quotes from a cross-section of delivery points compiled by PDQ (Price and Data Quotes). Prices ranged from about C$249.00 per tonne in southeastern Saskatchewan to C$279.90 per tonne in southern Alberta.

Quoted basis levels varied from location to location and ranged from C$40.30 to C$71.10 per tonne above the futures when using the grain company methodology of quoting the basis as the difference between the U.S. dollar-denominated futures and the Canadian dollar cash bids.

Related: Canadian wheat exports strong as new record remains possible

When accounting for currency exchange rates by adjusting Canadian prices to U.S. dollars (C$1=US$0.7323), CWRS bids ranged from US$182.40 to US$205.00 per tonne. That would put the currency-adjusted basis levels at about US$3.80 to US$26.40 below the futures.

Looking at it the other way around, if the Minneapolis futures are converted to Canadian dollars, CWRS basis levels across Western Canada ranged from C$2.80 to C$19.40 below the futures.

CPSR, CWAD

Average CPRS (11.5 per cent) wheat prices were up C$3.20 to C$4.70 per tonne. Bids ranged from C$227.60 per tonne in southeastern Saskatchewan to C$253.50 per tonne in southern Alberta.

Average CWAD prices gave up 40 to 80 cents per tonne. Bids ranged from C$277.70 per tonne in southwestern Saskatchewan to C$289.20 per tonne in southern Alberta.

U.S. wheat complex

The March spring wheat contract in Minneapolis, which most CWRS contracts Canada are based off of, was quoted at US$5.6825 per bushel on Feb. 17, holding steady on the week.

The Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures, which are now traded in Chicago, are more closely linked to CPRS in Canada. The March Kansas City wheat contract was quoted at US$5.3875 per bushel on Feb. 17, advancing 8.25 cents.

The March Chicago Board of Trade soft wheat contract settled at US$5.3775 per bushel Feb. 17, increasing 9.50 cents.

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The Canadian Grain Commission reported 230,300 tonnes of wheat exports for the week ended Feb. 1, down from 353,300 tonnes the previous week. So far this marketing year, 11.5 million tonnes of wheat were exported, compared to 10.5 million at the same time last year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its monthly supply/demand estimates on Feb. 10, with 2025-26 wheat ending stocks raised by five million tonnes at 931 million, exceeding trade expectations. Global carryout was tightened by 740,000 tonnes at 277.51 million, below the trade’s pre-report estimates.

Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat was down C$0.10 to up C$2.40 per tonne, according to price quotes from a cross-section of delivery points compiled by PDQ (Price and Data Quotes). Average prices were between C$249.10/tonne in southeast Saskatchewan to C$279.60 in southern Alberta.

Quoted basis levels ranged from between C$40.20 to C$70.80/tonne above the futures when using the grain company methodology of quoting the basis as the difference between the U.S. dollar denominated futures and the Canadian dollar cash bids.

Accounting for exchange rates and adjusting Canadian prices to U.S. dollars (C$1=US$0.7383), CWRS bids were from US$183.90 to US$206.50/tonne. Currency adjusted basis levels ranged from US$2.40 to US$25 below the futures. If the futures were converted to Canadian dollars, basis levels would be C$1.80 to C$18.40 below the futures.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prairie Red Spring (CPRS) prices lost C$1.80 to C$2.60 per tonne. The lowest average bid for CPRS was C$224.30 in southeast Saskatchewan, while the highest average bid was C$248.80 in southern Alberta.

The average prices for Canadian Western Amber Durum (CWAD) were up C$2.80 to C$3 per tonne with bids between C$278.50 in southwest Saskatchewan to C$289.60 in southern Alberta.

The March spring wheat contract in Minneapolis, which most CWRS contracts are based off of, was quoted at US$5.6825 per bushel on Feb. 10, down 0.75 of a cent.

The Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures, which are now traded in Chicago, are more closely linked to CPRS in Canada. The March contract declined 4.25 cents at US$5.3050/bu.

The March Chicago soft red contract was down 0.5 of a cent at US$5.825/bu.

The Canadian dollar moved up 0.58 of a cent to close at 73.83 U.S. cents on Feb. 10.

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