The Board of Directors at its March meeting has approved the following changes to the CBOT Wheat futures contract: 

1.  Change the delivery instrument from a warehouse receipt to a shipping certificate.

2.  Increase the storage rate for Wheat from 15/100s of one cent per bushel per day (approximately 4.5 cents per bushel per month) to 16.5/100s of one cent per bushel per day (approximately 5 cents per bushel per month).

3.  Increase rail load out for Toledo regular warehouses from 25 hopper cars to 50 hopper cars for individual weights and grades.  Allow takers of delivery to request unit average weights and grades for wheat load-out.  Under unit average weights and grades, Toledo warehousemen will be required to load out 65 hopper cars per day and Chicago, Burns Harbor, and St. Louis warehousemen will be required to load out 45 hopper cars per day.  In addition to these changes, Toledo regular warehousemen will be required to give preference in the load-out lineup to takers of futures delivery.

4.  Lower vomitoxin limit for par delivery on CBOT Wheat futures from 4 parts per million to 3 parts per million.   Wheat with 4 parts per million will still be allowed to be delivered at a 12 cent per bushel discount.

Pending CFTC approval, Items 1 though 3 above will be implemented starting with the July 2008 contract and Item 4 above will be implemented starting with the September 2009 contract.  Further details on the implementation of these provisions will follow at a later date.

If you have any questions, please contact David Lehman (312/347-3848) or Fred Seamon (312/347-3808) in Business Development.