Market news is pretty quiet this morning. Wheat futures nudged higher, then kinda caught fire and are currently up 21. Corn is up 2-4 right now. The Prez did sign the new RFS bill. This renewable fuel standard will set the CAFÉ standards to 35 mpg for cars, vans, suv’s etc by 2022 and represents about a 40% increase in efficiency. If this standard is hit, it would represent a savings of about 2 myn bbl’s of oil/ day…or about 30.6 BYN gallons of gas/ year…OR about a 20% reduction in usage. With growing economy and more drivers actual will probably be less, but it’s a great place to start.

Taiwan checked corn prices in China for about a 14.5 myn bu tender, but China did not make any offers. That will send a signal to the market! Also Russia is now saying that they will likely have to ‘curtail’ exports in February due to "supply concerns". We knew it was coming, just a matter of time. Brazil says that $10 beans will ‘stimulate’ about a 4-5% increase in planting for next year. One other bit of international news: Canada reported another case of BSE in a cow born before 1997 (she musta been a gummer). This is the 11^th case since the problem was first reported in 2003. By the way the US had JUST opened the gate to receiving Canadian cattle of all ages….

The other day I mentioned that the next USDA acreage report would be March 31. That is the correct date for CORN. They will have a winter wheat planting report out on January 11. That will be an interesting report to contrast their numbers with some from the ‘privates’. We have been discussing in our marketing meetings what these numbers might mean. Space here doesn’t allow for the same conversation…but consider what may happen to wheat prices, where they may go if: We just have normal weather resulting in AVERAGE yields. A quick thumbnail sketch reveals that just the top 3 exporters in the world "lost" over 880 myn bu of wheat due to weather last year. This was wheat that was planted/ ready for harvest but was flooded/ droughted/ froze etc. Where might wheat prices be today if the world’s wheat bin had 880 myn more bu? With the just the INDICATED planted acres from the USDA S&D’s, it implies about 7.7 myn HARVESTED DRYLAND acres which at 40 bpa would produce another 300+ myn bu (one and half PNW SWW crops). That comes up to nearly 1.2 byn bu…or roughly equal to what our number 2 and 3 customers combined would have bought last year. If you haven’t spent time on the S&D’s especially as they relate to new crop, then if will likely be well worth your while to get familiar with these numbers…corn as well.

***Didja Know: Fences need to be horse high, pig tight and bull strong…good fences make good neighbors. Also some other country advice: It don’t take a big person to carry a grudge; Every path has a few puddles; when you wallow with pigs expect to get dirty; the best sermons are lived not preached; most of the stuff we worry about doesn’t happen anyway….

***All bids are subject to change, please call for CONFIRMATION of prices. All information in this letter is from sources deemed reliable, and is for informational purposes only***