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      5/6/08

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

            Traders sold futures off hard toward the end of the session yesterday, apparently anticipating higher plantings. Their disappointment was seen in futures in early trading this morning with corn up .23-25 and beans up .44. Report showed corn 27% planted vs. 59% ave. Spring wheat is 58% vs. 62% ave. Winter wheat crop improved slightly again at 47% G-Ex vs. last week 46% and 57% last year. Good rains in the plains will likely help crop scores out again for next week. Washington is rated 65% G-Ex, Or is 19% G-Ex and Idaho is 83%.USDA said ave px of wheat was down .50/ bu in April (that won’t hit the headlines). Also on Friday we will get our first new peek at the S&D’s for 2008-09. 24 Senators from 19 states (these states only prod 4.6% of US ethanol, and only 2 senators are on the AG committee) have sent a letter requesting a waiver in RFS, or ethanol mandates. Today, if they waived the mandates, the corn would still get ground cuz there is positive margins in ethanol, and even discretionary blending makes money. But if they go far enough (remove blenders credit for example), today the RFS says we MUST use 4.5 byn gallons of ethanol (we are on pace to produce 9). By working the math backwards using ave BTU conversion, abandonment, trendline yields etc. 4.5 byn gallons of ethanol equates to about 11.3 myn corn acres. By the way, that also means a DEMAND pull for another 4+ byn gallons of gasoline (my guess is gasoline/ crude/ diesel prices would go UP). It would be much more if we needed to replace all 9+ byn gallons of ethanol (this years est. production).

            World crop conditions continue to be at least GOOD. At least avg. yields are projected, with large acres means good production numbers. Argie strike is still unsettled. In Aussie, though seed is just going into the ground, they are optimistic toward 25 myn mt crop. Paki is helping out Afghanistan and exporting 1.8 myn bu of wheat, and also approved immediate imports of 9.2 myn bu of wheat. They say they will need to import about 55 myn bu this year. India is having no trouble procuring wheat, and the gov’t says they are already of last years pace. Chinese authorities continue to try to calm fears of a food shortage, and said that unless there are a series of disasters, with their c/o and expected production, there will be more than enough food.   

***Didja Know: In 2000 the UN did a study that showed that 1 byn people suffered from OVER nutrition. 1^st time in recorded history that those with over-nutrition out numbered those with malnutrition (est. at 800 myn).