March 31 (Reuters) -Basis bids for soybeans shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast ticked up on Friday, after a pair of key grain stocks and planting acreage reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) fueled a price rally in the futures market, traders said.

* U.S. soybean futures rose on Friday after the USDA's forecast for 2023 plantings and its March 1 soy stockpiles estimate both came in at the low end of trade expectations.

* Strong storm systems, including severe thunderstorms and heavy rain, are forecast for wide swaths of the Plains and the Mississippi Valley in the coming days. And rising river conditions on the lower Mississippi River is impacting tow sizes, according to Ingram Marine Group.

* Snowfall of up to 8 inches in the Northern Plains and the northwest Midwest region on Friday and into next week are expected to stress both livestock and add to unseasonable high snow pack in these areas, Commodity Weather Group LLC said in a Friday market report.

* Rates for empty barges on Midwest Rivers were mostly steady on Friday, though spot rates eased on the Mississippi River at McGregor, Iowa; and at Davenport and South.

* CIF Gulf soybean barges loaded in March were bid at 112 cents over CBOT May futures SK3, up 1 cent from Thursday, while April soy barges were steady at 99 cents over futures.

* FOB basis offers for April soybean export loadings were around 119 cents over futures, up 1 cent from Thursday; May offers were steady at around 111 cents over futures.

* Corn CIF barges loaded in March were bid at 95 cents over CBOT May CK3 futures, up 1 cent, while April corn barges were bid down 2 cents at around 91 cents over futures.

* FOB basis offers for April corn export loadings were thinly quoted at around 105 cents over futures, steady from Thursday, while May loadings were steady at around 100 cents over futures.

Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar

For displays of CIF basis, click on the codes in brackets: U.S. CIF Gulf soybeans GRYM U.S. ClF Gulf corn GRYN U.S. CIF Gulf SRW wheat GRYO U.S. CIF Gulf HRW wheat GRYP For displays of FOB basis, please click on the following codes in brackets: U.S. FOB Gulf corn GRZC U.S. FOB Gulf soybeans GRZD U.S. FOB Gulf SRW wheat GRZE U.S. FOB Gulf HRW wheat GRZF LINKS Corn prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=corn-cash-market
Wheat prices page: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageid=wheat-cash-market
U.S. barge freight BG/US
U.S. export sales estimates USDA/EST U.S. grain export summary GRA/U Brazil soybean export prices SYBS Brazil corn export prices SYBX Argentina grain prices GRA/ARG Russia grain prices GRA/RU