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      4/28/08

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

                Congress has finally agreed ‘in principle’ on major portions of the Farm Bill. The conflict has been over how to increase spending in nutrition, without increasing taxes (looking for offsets). Major revisions now include: cutting GRAIN ethanol subsidy from .51/ gallon to .45/ gallon, while increasing at least somewhat the subsidy on cellulosic ethanol development. Trimming Direct Payments (but they haven’t said by how much), installing a $3.6 byn permanent disaster program. Growers will not be required to turn title for LDP’s (but Gov’t can change this in case of disasters). No real word yet on loan rates, and restricting schedule F losses to $200m/ entity.

            Cool wet weather has traders thinking planting progress will only be about 16-18% on this afternoons report (about ½ of the 10 year ave…BUT on about the same pace as last year. Last year on 4/27 plantings were at 20%). So corn was called sharply higher and is currently up 10, while any loss in corn acres look to shift to beans, and predictably they are down .30. The ‘critical’ planting window of 5/15 is quickly approaching. As a rule of thumb it is believed that corn planted after 5/15 starts to show significant yield loss. Weather for the rest of the week looks good for seeding / field work. Flooding continues in the SE delta areas, and there will likely be acres switched from corn to beans. Remember that if the S&D’s remain basically unch’d, and we don’t get more than 87-88 myn acres in, corn may well end up doing similar to what wheat did this year. COT report held no surprises…specs are nervous as world wheat output looks to be UP sharply, and prices for the new crop are very ill-defined right now.

            Argie farmers have set 5/2 as a strike deadline. If there is no resolution by the gov’t they will strike again, and apparently risk jail/ fines/ confiscation of property. Their corn harvest is about 53% complete. Iraq is tendering for 1.9 myn bu of HRW, but then said that they will be covered till August. The EU is pushing to restart the WTO talks, and have the first meeting by the end of May. There is so much distance between the various parties, it is hard to imagine how much success they will have. Germany has sided with France and is against virtually any and all farm subsidy cuts (which is precisely what developing nations want)…but this also extends well beyond Ag into other markets as well.

***Didja Know: Olive oil is made only from green olives. As of 2005, Ireland and Hungary had the lowest Corporate tax rates (12-15%) in the industrial world. The US, Japan and Germany the highest (38%). For Personal taxes: Korea and Mexico the lowest (18-20%), Germany and Belgium the highest: 52% for Germany, 55% for Belgium.