<i>"If i were a wheat farmer, it would have been nice to spot "large specs completely out of control" and hedged my wheat 5 years out at $20 bushel"</i>
At that time of the year, most physical wheat is in the hands of commercials... grain elevators or end-users. I'm sure they were all too happy to offload $20 bu wheat to the strapped spec shorts when they had about $7 - $8 bu invested.
If I were Kellogg, Pillsbury, etc and had plenty of spot on hand that cost $7, why not offload excess inventory at $18 ~ $20 and lock in new crop supplies on back-month contracts? Easy way to pad the balance sheets, if demand - supply on hand permits.
Large specs and commericals play vital roles in all financial markets. Letting either side get out of whack will greatly upset the apple cart, short term. Lately the large specs have been running amuck in commodities.
Small specs do their best to navigate the huge waves of turbulence. Get the trades right = big gains fast. Catch it wrong and let down discipline at the worst time = blown out. There is such thing as too much volatility, and we'll see that sooner or later in grains and softs.