By Kirk Maltais

--Wheat for September delivery fell 1.9% to $5.21 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday, in reaction to new estimates of a larger Russian crop and rains in other wheat-growing areas.

--Corn for December delivery rose 0.5% to $3.28 1/2 a bushel.

--Soybeans for November delivery edged 0.4% higher to $8.96 1/4 a bushel.

HIGHLIGHTS

Healthy Yields: There are better rains predicted for Australia, and IKAR raised its forecast for the Russian wheat crop to 79.50 million metric tons after some better yields in the central and Volga parts of the country, said Richard Buttenshaw of Marex Spectron. Traders also expect the USDA to show that the U.S. wheat crop has improved in quality in its crop progress report Monday afternoon, up from 70% in good or excellent condition last week.

Barely Adequate: Grain export inspections released by the USDA on Monday were on the lower side of trader expectations, said Terry Reilly of Futures International. Wheat inspections totaled 500,110 metric tons and corn inspections totaled 716,127 tons, according to USDA data, both on the low side for trader projections. Meanwhile, soybean inspections totaled 551,543 tons, falling within expectations.

Absent-Minded: Soybean futures could have gained more if grains traders were sure that 260,000 metric tons of American beans were purchased by China. "Commercial traders argue that this morning's old crop sale to an unknown destination was not to China but to the EU/Mexico," AgResource said. "This would imply that China has not been a noted buyer in the U.S. soybean market for the past 5 business days." July sales of U.S. grain exports were high, but it is unclear if that will continue in August, the firm said.

INSIGHT

Livestock Pile-Up: Coronavirus-related meatpacking plant shutdowns stranded about 3 million hogs and 1 million cattle on U.S. farms and ranches over the past few months, Tyson Foods executives estimate. That's been a burden for farmers, struggling to slow the animals' weight gain as they await processing, and keeping barns from overcrowding. For processors like Tyson, it means strong supplies of cattle and hogs for the coming quarters. For grains farmers, attempts to slow animal weight gain mean lesser consumption of feed grains.

AHEAD

--Beyond Meat will release its second quarter earnings after the market closes Tuesday.

--The EIA releases its weekly update on ethanol production and inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

--Corteva releases its second quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday.

(Jacob Bunge contributed to this article.)

Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com