Stuffed US grain elevators brace

You know what a snake looks like after it eats a rodent Grain facilities east of the Mississippi River are already however plugged with soft red winter wheat as big storage premiums in futures markets created by the CME Group's (CME.O) variable storage rate plan entice firms to store, not sell, SRW wheat Wheat stocks at elevators eligible for CME futures deliveries are up 70 percent from a year ago to 78 million bushels -- nearly one-third of the 2010 SRW harvest.

That takes a significant chunk of storage space away in Corn Belt east of the Mississippi River. Moreover, SRW wheat is not expected to move from eastern elevators or farms any time soon given the lucrative returns that grain firms and farmers capture by keeping it tucked away. So the best chance of wheat moving will be in the west, where country elevators are also stuffed with hard red winter wheat after two bumper summer harvests of low protein wheat.

"You know what a snake looks like after it eats a rodent?That's exactly what our grain market is going to look like for a few months," said Christopher, who is also a director at the however National Grain and Feed Association, a grain handlers' group.