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      3/27/08

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

            Egypt booked 6.6 myn bu of US SRW last night at $10.48 LH May TOS. Export sales report showed Corn with 28.7 myn bu (low end of the scale, with 3.9 of that for n/c. Beans only need 1.6 myn bu to stay on pace, but we sold 19.6 myn bu (thanks Argie, more on this later). Wheat sales tallied 14 myn bu o/c and 6 myn n/c for a total of 20 myn bu. We only need to sell 26 myn more bu, and have 9 weeks to do it in! Weekly breakdown was: 2.1 DNS, 4.2 HRW 4.5 SRW, and 3.1 SWW. Overnight 1 of the 2 main oil pipelines in Iraq was blown up, if crude takes a hike, expect corn to follow.

            Con-Agra released a press report saying they would sell their Commodity Trading/ Merchandising Operations to a hedge fund for $2.13 byn. They will use the money to plow back into core business. DTN ran an EXCELLENT article about the impact/ pressure created on grain companies/ co-ops by the credit crunch and required margin to buy/ sell/ hedge grain. Let me know if you would like a copy. Also a US judge in Manhattan dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by US farmers against the AWB saying they (US farmers) did not demonstrate a loss associated with AWB activities. ADM is suing 5 major US railroads on charges of anti-trust associated with freight surcharges. USDA is considering a proposal by the food industry to NOT identify retailers selling tainted products, unless there is a serious (CLASS I) recall. New technology being discovered by Shell Oil is working on “converting” sugar molecules to hydrocarbons vs. the more common fermentation/ distillation. They say early results look promising and end product is “gasoline/ gasoline blender” and can be handled exactly the same way as gas (easier transportation/ reduced pipeline worries). Sugars would still come from renewable sources like corn/ grasses etc.

            Brazil is nearing ½ point on what is shaping up to be a record bean crop. An estimated 300-500m tons of beans have been switched from Argie to US already. Strike continues and they are gaining “grass roots” support. Prez of Argie says they will not cave into extortion…I think that is precisely what the farmers are saying also. India is blaming high world food prices on US energy policy. Perhaps that is part of the equation, but when did the US become responsible for providing the world with cheap food? While it did rain in parts of China, the Northern provinces are still rated as “severe drought”. 50% of China’s water is rated “unfit to drink”, with 20% of the world’s population, and 7% of the world’s fresh water, they have some serious problems to sort out.