“There’s no reason why canola should be up . . . it may be  someone playing around ahead of the acreage report,” said a broker.  While exporter and domestic crusher demand was also underpinning  the market, there were no fresh sales to report on Monday and he  said declining crush margins were limiting some of the processor  demand.

Losses in the CBOT soy complex were limiting the upside in  canola, and traders expected canola would eventually back away  from its gains by the close.

Relatively favourable weather conditions across western  Canada, and the expectations for a large canola crop were also  overhanging the market.

At 10:49 CDT, about 10,000 canola contracts had changed  hands, with inter-month spreading accounting for about 6,000 of  the contracts traded.

Milling wheat, durum, and barley futures were all untraded  and unchanged.

Prices in Canadian dollars per metric ton at 10:49 CDT:

Price      Change

Canola            May     626.60    up  4.40

Jul     621.50    up  5.30

Nov     580.00    up  3.50

Western Barley    May     235.00      unch

Jul     235.00      unch

Milling Wheat     Oct     257.00      unch

Dec     262.00      unch

Durum             Oct     277.50      unch

Dec     282.00      unch

Barley            Oct     186.50      unch

Dec     190.00      unch