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      4/21/08

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

                It is amazing what one nice weekend and decent weather report will do…the “frost” worries in the southern plains were overdone, and the 6-10 day looks conducive to good wheat production. Weather provided for much needed field work in the corn belt and the 6-10 day says below normal precip, above normal temps. Plantings are expected to be about 7% on this afternoons report. All arrows pointing to better production, lower pxes. COT report was interesting in that the activity EXACTLY mirrored/ reflected activity in the grain pits…Specs are actually SHORT Chicago wheat futures (we have seen futures get beat up all last week…Index funds are still LONG (long and wrong? Time will tell). Corn we saw rally all last week to new highs as specs increased their positions to 985 myn bu! Inspection report showed only 36 myn bu of corn shipped (need to ave 47 myn bu). On wheat it was the same story…only shipped 22.4 myn bu, and with only 7 weeks left, either shipments won’t be made, or perhaps rolled to new crop. The prez did sign a 1 week Farm Bill extension. Meaning if there isn’t resolution by Wed, they will either be talking long term extension, or we revert to 1949 Farm policy, and I don’t think anyone in government wants to go there. FYI: 2/3 of the ‘Farm Bill’ goes to nutrition.

            INT’L News: Jordan will tender for 3.6 myn bu of wheat, while an announcement out of Russia is that their grain stocks are larger than expected. Good rains in WA (where they really needed them. “it will be the first time for several years when the season has started with some moisture in the ground”), but more or less dry in NSW and Victoria where it really hasn’t rained since Feb, putting stress on early crops. One new grain entity in Aussie is ‘Australian Grain Accumulation’ which is a JV between Grain Corp Ltd, and Cargill Australia Ltd. Stats Canada report showed somewhat larger wheat acres, but much lower Canola acres than expected. Their report is VERY similar to what the USDA does up and releases on 3/31 known as ‘prospective plantings’. The EU has ‘backed off’ its Bio-Fuel mandate, still wants to encourage bio-fuels but does not want it mandatory/ competing with food. Brazilian pres. Says it is time for rich countries to end farm subsidies…last time I checked they were the only ones with food/ without riots. Am I missing something? India has banned futures trading on wheat/ rice, and may extend the ban to other commodities like palm/ bean oil, sugar, spuds, in an effort to keep food cheap. They also announced plans to build a strategic reserve in ADDITION to current program. They currently are trying to maintain a 5 myn mt reserve of wheat/ rice. Proposal would call for an ADDITIONAL 4 myn mt of wheat and 5 myn mt of rice.