*

Corn curbed by expected higher planting estimate in USDA

report

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Weak exports, rain relief pressure wheat prices

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Soybeans ease after gains fuelled by soy oil rally

(Updates throughout for changes in U.S. trading, adds closing

prices, adds analyst quote)

By P.J. Huffstutter

CHICAGO, March 28 (Reuters) -

Chicago Board of Trade corn futures on Friday slumped to the

lowest price in more than three months on expectations of

increased U.S. planting this year, before rebounding on a spate

of fundamental trading and bargain-buying, market analysts said.

Soybeans also fell for most of the session under

pressured from a bumper Brazilian soybean crop, before ending

higher on potential domestic demand after the Trump

administration asked

oil and biofuels producers

to hash out a deal on the next phase of the nation's

biofuels.

"When you see these prices hit low enough, you'll see

people value buying," said Angie Setzer, partner at Consus Ag

Consulting.

Meanwhile, wheat futures hit a nearly eight-month low as

traders focused on sluggish exports and rain relief in parts of

the U.S. Plains.

Like other commodities, grain markets for much of the day

were subdued ahead of broad tariffs promised by U.S. President

Donald Trump from April 2, as well as proposed U.S. port fees on

Chinese-built vessels.

But traders also spent much of the day adjusting their

positions ahead of Monday's U.S. Department of Agriculture's

planting report. It will be issued with quarterly estimates of

U.S. grain stocks, in one of the most closely watched data

releases of the year for grain markets.

U.S. farmers will plant 94.361 million acres with corn this

year, up from 90.594 million in 2024, according to an average of

analysts polled by Reuters before the USDA publication.

The most-active CBOT corn contract settled up

3-1/4 cents at $4.53-1/4 a bushel, after earlier reaching its

lowest since December 20 at $4.42 a bushel.

CBOT soybeans ended 6-1/4 cents higher at $10.23 per

bushel. Wheat closed down 3-3/4 cents at $5.28-1/4 a

bushel, after earlier touching the lowest price since July 31.

Forecast rain for U.S. and Russian wheat belts and a low

volume of U.S. wheat export sales reported on Thursday also

pushed wheat futures lower.

And a U.S.-backed deal this week aimed at a ceasefire in the

Black Sea has also weighed on wheat markets, increasing the

prospects of smoother exports from Russia and Ukraine.

(Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen

Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Rashmi Aich, David Evans and

Aurora Ellis)