CANBERRA - Chicago soybean futures edged lower on Tuesday after reaching their highest level since June last year earlier in the session as China ramped up purchases of U.S. beans.

Wheat also rose to a multi-month high before trading lower. Corn futures fell slightly.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 0.2% at $11.55-1/4 a bushel at 0613 GMT, having reached $11.60-1/2 in early trading.

Prices have climbed by around 14% over the last month.

Chinese state-owned grain trader COFCO bought at least 14 cargoes of U.S. soybeans on Monday - around 840,000 metric tons - for shipment in December and January, traders told Reuters.

China has largely shunned U.S. soybeans amid a trade war with Washington. Monday's purchases were the largest since a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last month.

The White House said China had agreed to buy 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans this year.

These large volumes justify the rally in soybeans in recent weeks, said Dennis Voznesenski, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank in Sydney.

"If China does buy the amount they talked about, that is a lot of soybeans and there is not a lot of time left in the year to buy them," he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. soybean crush topped all trade forecasts and hit a record high in October, according to a monthly National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) report.

CBOT wheat was down 0.5% at $5.55-1/2 a bushel after rising to $5.61-1/4 earlier in the day, its highest since July.

Corn slipped 0.2% to $4.33-3/4 a bushel but remained near last week's peak of $4.42-3/4, the highest since June.

Ample global supply still weighs on soybeans, corn and wheat. Soybean and corn prices took a hit on Friday when the U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced its U.S. harvest estimates by a smaller amount than many analysts had expected.