Grain Gleanings

Post-Report Briefing

By Royce Bialas, Location Manager, Dimock

Wednesday, March 8, 2023, brought us a USDA WASDE briefing. The post-report grain markets showed  corn down 1 ¾ cents, beans up 10 cents and winter wheat down 2 cents.

For corn, both US and World carryout were bearish – raising US stock by 8 million bushels and world ending stocks up by 1.2 billion bushels. With these numbers I expect to see pressure on the corn market near term until we hit planting season when we see a little acreage fight. With crude oil slipping and demand falling plus no export sales, no reason to go higher at this time. The report number kind of surprised me but this is what we need to go by at this time. Going forward if you want to move corn before planting, sell any small rallies we may have. If more long term, weather may push the market higher, and new crop that will be planted in South America will influence this also. For now our economy seems to be the strongest in the world so will not allow the dollar to fall and make our crops more attractive for export at this time.

As for the beans, in this report they were bullish for the US stocks and neutral for World stocks. The big question for this crop is Argentina’s crop. How short is it? Their crop in February was estimated to be at 41 billion bushels. USDA now estimates it at 33 billion bushels. That is a 20% decrease in one month; a big number and that country feels it will fall under 30 billion bushels. That should give support to the bean market. At this time, Argentina is one of the world’s largest exporters of soymeal and soy oil. For them to continue that, they will have to import beans from Brazil, which will be direct competition with China wanting to buy beans also. With our supply at the lower end of the balance sheet, and crush margin being good for the processor, our cash prices should hold in this area unless China would need a quick shipment to get them to Brazil harvest full swing. Brazil is getting a good start on harvest with about 20% complete.

As for winter wheat, there is not very much here to say. No export for the simple fact of being 50 cents higher than world prices. The KS winter wheat ratings were down 2% good/excellent to 17% and up 2% from the poor/very poor categories. All in all, the wheat crop is not looking bad so there is no reason to take it higher, just maintain the price for feeding value.

If you have any questions, give our local grain merchandiser a call and they can help with sales options.

Have a safe spring planting season and calving season.

3/10/2023

Grain Contracting

By Jake Moret, Grain Originator

We can’t allow ourselves to be sick of the snow yet with most of our state still abnormally dry-moderate drought according to the latest drought monitor so take this into consideration when thinking about selling new crop. This is the time of the year I think you will find a lot of us suggesting being 20-30% sold on new crop corn and soybeans and with the past couple days of market improvement I feel it’s a great opportunity to lock in some risk. If you’re feeling that the basis needs to improve before you want to make a new crop cash contract, please consider making a futures-only contract and you can price the basis later. I also want to remind producers we still have free storage through a delayed price contract until September 29, 2023, so get those bushels hauled in before the roads turn soft and producers get busy in the field!

Spring reference prices for crop insurance for 2023 were set at $5.91 per bushel of corn, $13.76 per bushel of soybeans and $8.87 per bushel of spring wheat, as the market closed on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.

3/3/2023

Heart Health

By Rebecca Johnson, Salem Grain Location Manager

The last full week of February is ending, only 26 more days until spring is officially here. (YEAH!)  Hopefully, the chances of having any more significant snow in the days ahead are diminishing.

Most of us associate the month of February with Valentine’s Day but for the last 57 years February has been the month designated to raise awareness on heart health, for heart disease is the number 1 killer of Americans.

This winter has been a record setting year for snow which we have not seen in quite a long time. Snow shoveling has become a frequent activity for most people this year. Snow Shoveling and heart attacks are shown to have a connection. 7% of all heart attacks are related to snow shoveling. 1/3 of the heart attacks usually occur a day after a substantial snow fall and increases the deeper the snow and the more consecutive days of snow.

Snow shoveling puts stress on your cardiovascular system for several reasons. First, we are using upper body muscles to shovel which are close to the heart, and then add in the fact that cold temperatures narrow blood vessels and increase blood pressure, along with breathing frigid air which constricts the airway making the delivery of extra O2 to the heart more difficult. Second, most shoveling is done in the morning which also increases your risk for we are usually in a hurry and tend to exert ourselves more than usual, along with our circadian rhythms (body clock) that are more prevalent in the mornings which can make you prone to a cardiovascular catastrophe.

Here are a few tips to hopefully help you shovel safely. Take your time. If you get tired, go inside for a while, rest and warm up. Manage the task at hand, divide your shoveling up, taking frequent breaks, and not trying to shovel the whole area at one time. Just like exercising, treat shoveling the same way by staying warm but not overdressing and hydrate often. Pay attention to how you feel before, during, and after shoveling. If you are having trouble breathing, pressure in your chest, pain radiating down your jaw or left arm or any abnormal pain or pressure it is best to get checked out.

Hiring someone to shovel for you may be well worth the money if you already have medical conditions especially those related to coronary heart disease, hypertension, overweight, participate in very minimal physical activity and are over the age of 55.

Be smart and stay safe as we again are tackling another winter storm. As always thank you for your business with Central Farmers Cooperative and Fremar LLC.

2/24/2023

Central Farmers has a mobile app that provides real time business information at your hands. By partnering with BUSHEL, we are able to empower you, our producers, to make informed and quicker business decisions with CFC.

• Access scale tickets, contracts, bushel balances, cash bids and market information— all from your smartphone.
• Access scale tickets virtually in real time, allowing you to know how many bushels you have delivered and how much still needs to be delivered. The Scale Ticket interface is easy to understand and tracks grade factors such as Moisture and Test Weight.
• Access your contracts that you have with any CFC location. You will be able to see the status of any contract to find out whether it is filled or is still open.
• Access real-time bushel balances of your grain across all CFC locations.
• Access delayed cash bids for all of our CFC locations. You will be able to access Grains, Livestock and Ethanol Futures from CME or MGEX.

You can find the App on Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for iPhones by searching for Central Farmers. Download it today!