March wheat opened 3 1/2 cents lower on the day at 580 1/2 and established an early range of 575 1/4 to 582 1/4. Prices traded in a narrow range to start the session with values about in line with late overnight action. Wheat was the weakest of the grains this morning, losing to corn in light trade by spreaders early on. Traders said that a higher dollar added pressure to the wheat market this morning. This follows a week in which wheat and other grain markets have occasionally moved in the same direction as the dollar, rather than in opposite directions which is the more normal relationship. One trader noted that today's big sales announcement for corn to Mexico also stands in contrast to the wheat market where higher prices are not causing any sort of 'catch up' buying of overpriced US wheat by major importers. The western Australian wheat belt has experienced extreme heat recently and some analysts indicate that this could result in reduced production of about 500,000 tonnes to as high as 1.0 million tonnes. However, one analyst points out that world production estimates have been increasing by more than this much on a regular basis over most of the past two crop years.