Benchmark United States wheat futures posted its second consecutive week of strong gains as investors begin to dial back yields in several key production areas around the world, including Australia. US wheat futures have now rallied by 9 per cent in the past fortnight to the highest level in 10 months as ongoing dry weather in Australia, building dry conditions in southern Russian and the Canadian Prairies as well as extreme heat in the US HRW areas threaten yields. Global markets are becoming more sensitive to weather in Russia which accounted for more than a fifth of the world wheat exports in the 2017/18 season. Analysts are starting to pare back projections for Russia’s upcoming harvest which will start in little more than a month. Russia’s spring wheat plantings are lagging where cold, wet conditions had slowed seeding with some of the intended plantings already in doubt. Persistent dry weather is also threatening Russia’s winter wheat yields.