The gains retraced drops seen since Friday as showers and thunderstorms wereforecast and materialised in the Midwest, which is just planting this year'scrops following the driest winter in the United States in 105 years ofrecord-keeping.

Soybeans for July delivery at the Chicago Board of Trade closed 14 cents abushel higher at $5.70 and July corn ended 5-1/2 cents higher at $2.44-1/4.July wheat went along for the ride, closing 7-1/4 cents higher at $2.65 abushel.

The closing prices on Wednesday pushed soybeans back to within a few centsof last week's 14-month high prices. Corn closed within 6 cents of lastweek's 8-month closing highs.

"They took it down pretty hard on the rains over the weekend," said ShawnMcCambridge, grain analyst at Prudential Securities. "But the market hasabsorbed the rains and it's looking further out at a possible drought.""It was the weather market coming back. The rain event has ended and thequestion now is: 'Is it going to rain again? That came from the NOAA reportthis morning,'" said Dale Gustafson, analyst for Salomon Smith Barney.

On Wednesday, an official with the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA) said Midwest farmers can expect unreliable rains anddrought conditions this summer.

"There has been a fair amount of rainfall in a very short period" in partsof the Midwest and South," John Kelly, NOAA assistant administrator, toldreporters in Washington. "But they have had a sustained deficiency ofmoisture for months and months," Kelly said. "I just don't see a consistentamount of rainfall during a long period of time. We think that the droughtwill persist." Drought conditions world-wide this year have been blamed onLa Nina, which has dominated global weather patterns for the past two years.

La Nina - Spanish for "the little girl" - is tied to abnormally cold watersin the Pacific Ocean that have a broad impact on weather. China, Iran,Pakistan, and India are among other big grain producers and consumers seeingdrought problems this year.

Large grain stocks from recent bumper harvests have been a buffer for grainmarket fears. But all that could change if a severe drought strikes the USmidwest, the source of much of the world's exportable surpluses of corn,wheat and soybeans. Corn and soybean planting this spring has gone at arecord pace in some states. As of Sunday, 78 per cent of the 80 millionacres of corn were seeded, well above the 5-year average of 44 per cent.About 34 per cent of the planned 75 million acres of soybeans were planted,sharply above the average 8 per cent.

"The argument is early plantings give you big yields, but that all dependson whether it rains or not," said Sid Love, grain market analyst forKropf/Love Consulting in Kansas City.

Analysts said all eyes in coming weeks will be on the subsoil moisturelevels in key areas like western Iowa, the top U.S. corn state. Subsoilmoisture in Iowa was rated 87 per cent short-to-very short as of Sunday, upfive percentage points from a week earlier.