By Jeff Wilson Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat prices fell for a second straight day on speculation that warm, dry Midwest weather will end U.S. planting delays caused by too much rain and spur early growth for a crop that will go dormant for the winter. Two weeks of higher temperatures and limited rainfall will speed seeding of winter wheat fields from Missouri to Ohio, where rain delays were the most severe last month, said Allen Motew, a meteorologist for QT Weather in Chicago. Warm, wet weather in the southern Great Plains next week will increase development of planted grain, Motew said in a report to clients. “Farmers are going to get an excellent opportunity to plant the intended winter-wheat acreage,” said Shawn McCambridge, a senior grain analyst with Prudential Bache Commodities LLC in Chicago. “The concerns about significantly reduced planted acreage have been reduced.” Wheat futures for December delivery fell 15 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $4.9725 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, paring the week’s gain to 0.6 percent. The grain is down 19 percent this year on signs that global production is rising faster than demand. About 79 percent of the winter wheat crop, the most common variety in the U.S., was planted by Nov. 1, compared with the average of 90 percent for the same time of the season in the previous five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said. An estimated 64 percent of the crop had emerged from the ground, trailing the five-year average of 75 percent. About 64 percent of the grain was in good or excellent condition on Nov. 1, compared with 62 percent a week earlier and 67 percent on the same date last year, the USDA has said. Wheat is the fourth-biggest U.S. crop, valued at a record $16.6 billion in 2008, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government figures show.

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