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      3/31/08

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

                The report is out, and judging by the movement in the futures, it caught some traders by surprise! Remember these estimates are based on a survey GROWERS completed the first part of February. CORN: USDA proj 86 myn acres. This is down about 1.5 myn lower than the average trade guess, and translates into ‘only’ a 12.04 byn bu crop (which is about 350 myn less than current USDA projected usage). Also means that IF everything worked as numbers are currently laid out that by the time we got to harvest in ’09 we would use up some c/o stocks, but still have about 1 byn bu in c/o. Also keep in mind, that if USDA averages hold out (the report averages 4% fewer acres than actual)…it implies 90 myn acres and an increase in c/o. BEANS: Most likely due to higher input prices, but also due to the stunning value of n/c beans, bean acres are estimated 3 myn more than avg trade guess. Beans are expected to close limit (.70) down. Wheat acres were actually very close to the avg trade guess, but there are about 3 myn more acres planted this yr. Vs. last (+2 myn more winter wheat (SRW), and +1 myn more spring wheat (not necessarily DNS). Today, any loss of wheat acres (flooding in Ark for example), probably favors beans…but one or 2 days of limit down and it is still PLENTY early for them to plant corn. To throw a bit of curve ball into all of this, is that La Nina is quickly disappearing, and in fact as waters warm, if trend continues we could be in an El Nino by summer time (good for crop prospects in most of the US…just not the PNW).

            ADM’s case against the US railroads will be turned into a class action suit with up to 25 more names being added list. Bush signaled to the other WTO participants that the US is ready to get into WTO compliance (has anyone told the folks working on the Farm Bill?) if the EU joins in, and developing countries open markets.

            Int’l: Argie strike was suspended temporarily during negotiations. The neg. failed and strike is back on. In Aussie: NSW, Victoria rec’d very good precip last week, WA and SA rec’d only light showers. France (who gets 44% of all EU subsidies) says that they are open to negotiation. We have been there before, and getting them to the table wasn’t the problem, it was loosening the grip they have on all the EU subsidies.