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      2/5/08

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

            We had just got all the exporters back to bidding for SWW, futures were up the limit yesterday, then about 11:00 the market got a whiff of a 3.9 myn bu release from the BEHT. SWW bids quickly went to NO BID, and still haven’t surfaced. There were 3 criteria they were looking at: 1) Most valuable class of wheat (yesterday it was Durum or SWW, today HRW and especially DNS also enter the equation). 2) Target warehouses that have at least 330,000. 3) Warehouses with the highest storage rates. Right now KC and MPLS are locked limit up through all delivery periods…so perhaps SWW won’t even be targeted… Right now Chicago, Mpls and KC are all locked limit up all through the complex.

            International: S. Africa’s corn harvest is estimated to be quite a bit larger than expected as they have had nice rains (won’t export, but imports from the US will be diminished). Japan is tendering for 2.7 myn of wheat for April, and 3.5 myn bu for May. They have consistently been bidding in the deferreds, not wanting to get into a position where wheat is not available. This is becoming the trend as the likely hood of running out of wheat is not only possible, but starting to look probable, especially in some classes. Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines all approved Monsanto’s RR Beans for import (maybe wheat won’t be far behind)? Turkey is expected to tender for 6.4 myn bu of wheat, and Morocco has just completed their 23.9 myn tender.

            US: KCBT and MGEX set huge new volume records, which should not be a surprise. As part of USDA’s 2009 budget they plugged in a corn acreage of 88 myn acres. Using trendline yields, avg abandonment do you remember what the market requirement was? 87.5 myn acres. Economics say corn is still a value vs. beans due to latest runup in prices. Barge rates on the Illinois river are running 510% of tariff due to ice buildup. Informa released some crop estimates; in short the southern plains of HRW is in bad shape, being rated well below normal. Kansas has the lowest ratings in the last 10 years at 23% poor-very poor.  Okie is 27% P-VP, and Texas is 54% P-VP. Ohh by the way the ground hog did see his shadow…meaning 6 weeks more of winter.