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      2/29/08

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

            Markets act tired. After swapping a gazillion $$$ back and forth all week, I bet the traders are too. At least 1 will be looking for work. MF Global, which is the largest ETF trader in the country had to cough up $141.5 myn to cover losses by 1 employee that “substantially exceeded his own account limits”. Apparently internal computer controls were turned off to facilitate quicker trades, and losses mounted quickly before their discovery. $$$ have just been pouring into commodities as investors look for something with a return. It isn’t the stock market, bonds are over priced, and lately commodities have been the hot ticket. The thing is, as the economy (here and abroad) slow, so will demand for virtually all commodities.

            Corn was expected to open down 1 to 3 with wheats expected down hard….that’s pretty much what happened. Corn has recovered to post small gains, while wheats have crashed in the ditch. Old crop slots are generally down 50-60, while new crop slots are down 40-50.

            Other news: Argentina extended their export ban from 3/14 till April 8^th. Egypt booked 4.4 myn bu of French wheat at $12.20. No doubt this was “lesser” quality wheat. Also of interest is that the AWB offered 2.2 myn bu. Congress keeps “working” on the “farm bill”. One of the big hang ups is about $10 byn in “additional spending”. As they look for places to cut this projected increase, Direct Payments have come under fire, especially with prices high. Here are a few facts about the 2002 “Farm Bill”:

• The “Farm Bill” accounted for .56% of the entire Federal Budget. Some of the Big Ticket items were: Defense 16%, Social Security 23%, Medicare 19%, Non Defense Descretionary 19%…get this: 10% went to pay INTEREST!
• Of the .56% that the “Farm Bill” got, 55% went to Food stamps, WIC, School lunches etc.
• 25% of the Farm Bill went to commodity payments, 7.7% to crop insurance, 7.8% to conservation.

***Didja Know: The first woman to run for president was Victoria Woodhull in 1872. Women didn’t even have the right to vote at that time! Clark Gable was a major in the army, when he was discharged, his papers were signed by Captain named Ronald Reagan. NBC was the first “Radio Network”. The first president of the National Broadcast Company was a guy named David Sarnoff…who happened to hear the ships distress signals, and alerted other ships in the area, that were able to rescue the eventual survivors….

                                                            HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND