Soy futures for November delivery fell 0.4% to US$9.325 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 10:49 a.m. Singapore time, after losing as much as 0.9% earlier. Corn futures for December delivery lost 0.3% to US$3.71 a bushel, while September-delivery wheat futures dropped 0.4% to US$4.74 a bushel.

 

Hot temperatures in the Midwest, the largest corn and soy-growing region in the US, will aid crop development, while similar weather in the central and south Plains favours maturing wheat crops, Telvent DTN Inc. said in a forecast.

 

''There's a lot of focus on the weather in the US,'' Toby Hassall, a research analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty, said. ''The weather forecasts I'm seeing are indicating a slightly more favourable outlook for the corn and soy crops.''

 

Still, drier weather in China's corn-growing regions may push the world's second-largest consumer to boost imports, potentially providing support to prices, Hassall said.

 

In northeast China, dry weather will continue to deplete soil moisture, likely increasing stress on corn, soy and spring-wheat crops, DTN said.

 

''That might lead to China requiring more US corn to satisfy their needs,'' Hassall said. ''There are some supportive elements in the market at the moment, but from my point of view, the main factor is what is looking like a record large crop in the US,'' he said.

 

China has bought six cargoes of corn totalling 360,000 tonnes from the US in the past two weeks, bringing purchases to 16 cargoes, or almost one million tonnes. That brings corn imports by China, a net exporter until 2009, to the highest level in 14 years, according to data from the USDA.

 

The US corn crop, the world's largest, is forecast to expand to a record 339.6 million tonnes in the year beginning September, up from 333 million tonnes a year earlier, according to the USDA.