Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                                      Jon Sperl

             1-800-452-7396 or 541-989-8221                           1-800-422-7611 or 541-276-7611

              or Dan Steiner 481-6614 (office), 571-3798 (cell)  graingrowers@centurytel.net

                                                            GOOD MORNING!!!

            Below are the best indicated market bids as of:   9:00  on      1/4/08

***NOTE: Corn values vary depending on delivery location PLEASE call for updates.

            USDA report winter wheat plantings report will be out NEXT Friday. Informa will release their version later today (about 10:30). Export sales numbers were pretty lack luster, but then we didn’t really expect a lot over the holidays. Corn sales were expected to fall somewhere from 31-51 myn bu total was actually 27.5. Wheat easily had the worst week we have had the entire marketing year, barely dinging the sales slate with only 4.4 myn bu in sales. It is worth noting however that there are about 22 weeks left in the ’07-’08 wheat crop year, and we are only 100 myn bu from hitting the USDA projections meaning we only need to average 4.5 myn bu to meet the mark. With Paki, and Bangladesh as big buyers tendering in the next couple weeks, some interesting things are still in the market.

            A news report out of China helps explain why the Chinese government is taking some of the steps that they have to keep food prices in check. Food inflation was up over 18% in 2007, while consumer price index was only up 6.9%. Also, Turkey reported that their 2007 wheat production was down about 20%. This was mostly in the market, and since Turkey is not a major exporter, won’t get “above the fold” type of attention, but is worth noting. Last year they did sell quite a bit of wheat to Egypt. Aussie and Argie will be wrapping up harvest, then we will have the only month of the year that wheat harvest is not occurring SOMEPLACE (February). India will start harvest in March, followed closely by Paki.

            High oil prices are good for ethanol, and so far have been actually been good for Ag. Ethanol plants are were starting to see some “black”, but recent run-up in corn will temper that. Question is what happens when oil prices retreat, especially if grain prices remain up? Economists estimate that the US will need at least 7 myn more acres of beans this spring. First acres in will be ‘poorer’ corn ground (stuff that won’t get 120 bpa). This will be important, later because it can effect the bpa yield estimates for corn…if all the poorer ground goes to beans then bpa average for corn should increase.

***Didja Know: After failing time and again, Thomas Edison’s lab assistant was said “everything’s gone wrong”. Thomas Edison remarked ‘Not at all we simply have found 10,000 ways NOT to invent a light bulb”. Mistakes are a part of life, It is the response to error that counts….Every great mistake has half way point, a split second when it could be recalled and perhaps remedied…

                                                            HAVE GREAT WEEKEND