CHICAGO, April 24 (Reuters) - Spot soybean basis bids were steady to higher at interior and river elevators around the U.S. Midwest on Thursday and mostly steady at processing plants as scant farmer selling underpinned the market, grain dealers said.

* Spot corn basis bids held mostly steady at ethanol plants and other processors, while bids ticked higher at several river elevators.

* Several soy processing plants raised their spot basis bids earlier this week to entice farmers to sell more of their old-crop supply. But sales have remained generally light, dealers said.

* Improved planting weather in the central Midwest following recent rains is expected to accelerate planting of corn and soybeans. The planting pace for both crops has been slightly ahead of average so far this spring.

* Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures Sv1 were higher for a third straight day on Thursday, with May futures SK25 up 8 cents near midday at $10.48-1/4 a bushel. May corn CK25 was up 4-3/4 cents at $4.76-3/4 a bushel.

Basis values are quoted against CBOT futures in cts/bu:

NOTE: 0 = Option price, UNC = Unchanged, UNQ = Unquoted

NC = Not comparable, DP = Delayed price, N/A = Not available,

F = January, H = March, K = May, N = JulyQ = August, U = September, X = November, Z = December

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LINKS: 0#USCSHGRN-PM

For U.S. forward basis spreadsheets, please click:

CORN/BASIS, SOYA/BASIS, WHEAT/BASIS, MILO/BASIS

- CBOT corn report COR/

- CBOT soybean report SOY/C

- CBOT wheat report WHE/C

- U.S. grain barge freight values BG/US

- U.S. Midwest cash grain PM GRA/PM

- U.S. CIF/FOB Gulf Grain GRA/F

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese)

((karl.plume@thomsonreuters.com; +1 313 484 5285))