Mounting dryness and drought conditions in the central Plains, where some areas haven’t seen rainfall in over a month, and purported new soybean export demand have both of those pits starting the week’s grain trade on higher notes. The soybean export picture is boosted by a big week of buying two weeks ago by China, and many expect that to continue when data for last week’s sales are released early this week. Meanwhile, similarly dry weather in wheat-rich Russia has that global market looking to continue to trend higher this week. Wheat country’s not the only area where weather’s making waves; freeze warnings in parts of Kansas and Nebraska and early snowfall into Iowa and Illinois could stall fall harvest progress, which was moving well ahead of the normal pace as of last week’s USDA crop progress data, which will again be released Monday afternoon. See more on today’s big stories to watch here.