Grain Gleanings

Successful Marketing

By Jake Moret, Grain Originator

Soybean futures moved higher on Thursday, breaking out of the recent sideways range and posting a bullish move on the daily chart. Japan is weighing buying more U.S. beans as part of a tariff deal, though beans have been looking for a reason to break out of the sideways trade.

Excluding the 20/21 crop year, this year's seasonal sales pace is at a 30-year high, which goes to show how strong export demand is. Ethanol grind also seems to remain strong and hopes to continue that trend into summer.

Effective management is essential to successful marketing. That's why we would love to help manage the risk with you. If you want to try a different marketing tool, feel free to reach out and we would like to walk through how we can structure an accumulator for your new crop ’25 bushels. Currently pricing beans 40c above the market and corn 25-30c above the market. I feel these are a great tool to start marketing up to 10 percent of your bushels and are very effective in our current market environment.

4/25/2025

New Marketing Alternative

By Jeff Moritz, Lead Grain Merchandiser

With the April WASDE behind us, the grain markets shrugged off a mid-week slump to advance to prices not seen since mid- to early March. The concern over Tariff escalation still looms but at present the weaker US Dollar has created a tailwind for broader commodity basket (sans the energies) and specifically the row crops. In fact the dollar is trading at its lowest levels since early 2022. This should keep the US competitive in World Corn market as it has been for the last several months until the Brazilian 2^nd corn crop hits the market. USDA felt compelled to raise exports in the last WASDE report by 100 million bushels, which helped to reduce the carry out to 1.465 billion. Corn used for ethanol continues to be solid as well. Margins, while scant, are adequate to keep grinding. However, the slide in Oil and Gasoline values will need to be watched in order to attempt to handicap production/corn usage going forward.

Like Corn, Soybeans have also recently benefited on the export front from a weaker US dollar and a strengthening Brazilian Real. In fact we have seen basis values at the Gulf firm as there have been some recent cancellations of Brazilian soybeans by the EU replaced by US soybeans. Even with this positive news, these US ‘wins’ will be few and far between. Brazilian soybeans will dominate the business in the coming months at much more attractive price levels to world buyers. Not to down play its significance by its placement in this article, the rising trade tensions between the US and China show no signs of backing off per recent retoric by both sides. While, US has shipped most of its soybean sales to China, there is still around 1MMT of soybeans on the books at risk of cancellation and concern over getting completely shut out on any further business. Domestic Crush has been slumping in recent months and the NOPA crush report for March released Tuesday revealed the same as crush rates were the lowest since September 2024. Low soy oil stocks may keep soybeans supported short term but amid the ongoing significant biofuels policy uncertainty and apparent significant decline in soybean oil’s usage in biofuels production it may not be enough in the longer term without a supply issue later this summer.

I’m excited to introduce our new Marketing Alternative, Bonus Premium or Payout Contract. This contract provides for an enhanced forward contract price with the possibility of a potential additional commitment bushel depending on certain market criteria. How its works is you sell a specfic quantity of grain. You have the opportunity to receive an enhanced price to the market referred to as the Premium Price at contract expiration if the futures market settles between the price range of the Premium Offer Price and Payout Price as provided and agreed to on the contract. You may be obligated to deliver an additional like quantity if the market price closes above the Premium Offer price at expiration. All bushels are Priced at the Premium Offer price. If the market price falls below the Payout Price at expiration you receive the Market Settlement for that day and receive a Payout in the amount of the difference between the Premium Price and the Payout Price. This is a cash grain contract and physical delivery is required. This contract can be written for old as well as new crop. Call your CFC originator for details on this new contract or if you’re looking for assistance with your marketing plan.

As a FREMAR patron said to me recently, ‘With all of this volatity and change that exists in the grain market and our daily lives, all we can do is take it day by day and act accordingly.’ On behalf of all of us at CFC I wish you a Happy Easter Season and very safe and successful Spring Season.

4/18/2025

Here's Your Sign!!

By Rebecca Johnson, Grain Facility Manager, Salem

Spring has started with a few days of wintery mix showing up here and there.   Farmers and agronomy crews are starting to travel the roadways when the weather cooperates.  This means all of us need to pay extra attention to our surroundings as we travel.  For the combination of slow-moving vehicles and fast-moving vehicles can quickly become a bad situation.

Back in the early 1960’s a reflective orange triangular sign with a red border was developed and became known as the SMV- Slow Moving Vehicle Sign.  Mounted on the back of a tractor, combine, wagon and any other slow-moving vehicle, this sign alerts other vehicles that they are approaching a slow-moving vehicle and that they should be slowing down to decrease the number of rear end accidents from occurring.  By law it is required that all vehicles traveling 25 MPH or less need to have a SMV sign attached to the rear of there equipment.  This also applies to horses and buggies that travel the roadways.

Besides the SMV sign motorists should pay close attention to equipment that starts to slow down near an approach, farmyard or a driveway especially if these entrances are to your left for if you would try to pass them while they are tempting to turn a life-threatening accident could occur. Equipment also may be wide and extend into the oncoming traffics lane.  Farm equipment is not required to drive on the shoulder of the road, so pay attention to obstacles such as mailboxes and other things on the side of the road that may cause wide equipment to veer even farther into the opposite lane.

The operator of the SMV has obligations as well to help prevent an accident such as knowing how wide the equipment is, checking lights, hazard flashers and turn signals to make sure they are working properly and that they are visible to vehicles approaching from the rear.

Wishing all a safe spring.

4/4/2025

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

• 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. You are able to see the grade factors on each scale ticket 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 can find our App on Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for iPhones by searching for Central Farmers. Scan the QR code below for quicker download process. Download it today!