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      1/30/09

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

            Beans are much stronger, corn is up a little while wheats are 3-4. News is quiet. US $$ is stronger. Japan bot 8.4 myn bu of corn from US. Corn sales have definitely picked up as importers recognize that Argie will not be able to export normal volumes. Wheat has been struggling finding demand, but country selling has been light, and farmers are patient.

            The dry weather is expected to return to Argie. So the brief break in weather was just that, BRIEF. Weather man sez hot/ dry to return, so I would expect that Monday morning we may hear of more production cuts. Brazil is expecting at least average yields, even though growers there reported that fertilizer pxes had got so high they had to cut back or go without. I?m not for sure if they went ahead and paid the high pxes for fertilizer or if they mined the soil for a year?but either way their bean production will not suffer. I read a study from Aussie that claimed that GMO canola could increase yields there by as much as 20%. Those type of production increases are hard to ignore, and the weight they bear on the market is tremendous, especially in tough economic times. Its another sign of gradual GMO acceptance.

***Didja Know: According to the American Farmland Trust the US loses 2 acres of Ag land every minute to Development? Rabobank is projecting a ?bumpy? ride in 2009. They foresee increased volatility, but that long term prospects for Ag is good. Kids age 3-5 pick up different languages easily largely because they don?t concern themselves with things like grammar or syntax. The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory keep the ?official? time in the US. Together they come up with Universal Time Coordinate (UTC). The precision is within .0000001 seconds of each other.      

                                                HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

             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      1/27/09

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

            Trade is expecting a slow, lackluster day. Not much new news to trade on. US $$ is lower. Markets will almost always drift lower (you gotta feed the bull everyday). The rally’s lately haven’t been made of the stuff that builds long lasting or sustained rallies. Specs are simply pushing the market around looking for some sort of movement (they can’t make money on steady markets). USDA said they want to help ethanol plants with efficiencies, hmmm. They do recognize the value of stable domestic demand for our production, and also that this industry is struggling mightily right now. Another plant in Texas filed chapter 11. Corn exports are running at 40% of last years levels, and the average US basis is –30 (pretty weak). Another indicator to measure strength is look at the futures and how they are configured. Corn has a HUGE carry out to harvest of 2010…contrast that with the Mpls red wheat futures where basis is screaming at +$1.75 and the futures are inverted into new crop…which do think shows more strength?

            News continues to trickle out of Argie. The drought stories are as bad as advertised. The Gov’t says that they WILL allow exports, but not until the grain industry can demonstrate that they have at least 6.1 myn mt (domestic usage for 1 year). Today the Argie gov’t is projecting about a 8-9 myn mt crop…so what’s that mean? Well last year they produced about 16 myn mt and exported about 8-9 myn mt…this year they may only have 1-2 myn mt available for exports. (That’s good for us/ US). Brazil typically buys most of their needs from Argie, which obviously won’t be happening this year, so the most likely suppliers are the US / Canada.

***Didja Know: Planted US winter wheat acres are down 9% vs. last year? SWW acres are actually up 1% (USDA numbers). Some Chinese typewriters have up to 5700 characters, and the keyboard can be 3’ wide. “Someone is sitting in the shade today, because someone planted a tree a long time ago”…

Warren Buffet.

 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      1/23/09

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

            Traders blew the opening call (it happens). Wheat / Corn called –6 to –8 to open, but opened sharply higher. Chicago is up 21 right now and KC is up 14 to 16 while corn is up 7 (was up 12 earlier). Looks like the reason for the stronger open was the export sales report. Corn sales for the last week were 42.8 myn bu. High for the year.Trade was only hoping for 16 to 24 myn bu. We needed to have 28 myn bu to hit the new lower USDA numbers. Wheat sales also beat expectations with 15.1 myn sold. Traders were hoping for 5.5 to 13 myn bu. The US $ was weaker all last week running about $1 to .73 Euro, which really helped. Today we are at 1 : .78. Overnight private sales reported 3.7 myn bu sale of corn to Japan. USDA also reported that Nigeria cancelled 10 myn bu HRW purch (2.9 myn bu was for 2010). Vera Sun says that will offer 7 ethanol plants (formerly US Bio-Fuel plants) for sale. The market will be very interested to see what they bring. Vera Sun bought these plants for $757 myn.

            The market is trying to quantify the possible Argie corn losses. Today it looks like they will be down about 6 myn mt (236 myn bu). China is considering entering the world markets for new corn exports AND imports. Because of logistics and internal policy (space here doesn’t provide for a full explanation), it makes sense for them today to export corn from the Northeast provinces. Most of their production is in the Northeast. Most likely destinations would be Korea/ Japan. They don’t have any good transportation or rail system from the high production area to the high demand area of the south. IF they do allow imports, according to WTO a % has to be available for private buyers (meaning they don’t have to go through gov’t channels). It is a potential for 2.9 myn mt or 114 myn bu. We’ll keep track of it, cuz that is a big chunk of potential demand.

***Didja Know odds-n-ends: The Chinese New Year starts on 1/26? They are in the year of the ‘Rat’ and will be entering the year of the ‘Ox’. OPEC is producing 1.5 myn bbl/ day LESS crude than they were this day in 2008. Virtually all metal inventories are up AND increasing (not much upside price risk). Energy stocks are UP as well but inventories are NOT building today. Potash Corp of Sask is the world’s largest Potash producer and their profits doubled in the 4^th ¼ of last year. Argie is the world’s number 3 corn / bean exporter (ok, well maybe not this year).

                                                                                             HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

             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      1/22/09

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

            Egypt booked 6.5 myn bu yesterday. 2.3 myn of it was US SRW at $5.15/ bu FOB (pretty cheap sale). They also booked 2.2 myn bu Russian at $5.09 and 2.3 myn bu French at $5.19. Since we know that Egypt is a barometer for cheapest class wheat, we can know pretty sure where we stack up on the world markets. Argie drought continues now rated the worst in 50 years. They are not huge corn producers, but it will effect world S&D’s. Today the thinking is that the large Brazilian, Chinese and bigger US carryouts will be more than enough to offset their production losses. The Brazilian gov’t will offer up to $864 myn to co-ops to help with their working capital to get them through this years grain/ coffee harvest. Paki postponed their 9 myn bu SWW tender…AGAIN. And last night Japan booked 5.7 myn bu of wheat with 3.3 myn bu coming ex US. Jordan booked 3.6 myn bu of Ukrainian wheat.

            Stock market is taking another hit with yet again bigger unemployment numbers/ and lower housing numbers. How come every month economists are surprised? Yesterday we took a peek at what we need for corn acres. We know that winter wheat acres are down about 4 myn acres vs. last year freeing up acres for beans/ corn other crops. Informa did a survey the first of the month and results of the survey (if they can be trusted) imply 7% more bean acres vs. last year and 4% fewer corn acres. That –4% reduction equates to 82.7 myn acres…yesterdays short exercise says we only need 79 myn acres, so the ‘battle’ for acres this spring does not look like it will be all that big…it also means that ‘weather’ events won’t carry quite the shock that they normally do…all based on numbers we see today. Besides, we all know about farmer surveys right?

***Didja Know: Average life expectancy in the US is now 83 years? In Egypt average life expectancy is 68 which is a sharp 15 year improvement in the last 30 years…Harland Sanders was 62 years old when he founded ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’…China raises about ½ the world’s pork.

 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      1/20/09

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

            Futures started stronger this morning, but turned lower quickly. Corn is still clinging to about a .02/ bu gain, but is a dime lower than the open. Corn gained most of its support from continued hot/ dry Argie weather, and the weather man sez more of the same is coming. Wheat futures are .14 lower than the open. The US $$ is up hard this morning. Inspection report has been put off till Wednesday due to the inauguration. Export sales and shipments continue to miss the marks set by USDA. As we move further through winter, we can expect to read more stories about winterkill/ possible winterkill. With carry out stocks large, it will take a major event to change the fundamentals we are seeing in the wheat/ corn trade. Winterkill or no, today it looks like protein premiums/ discounts for harvest bushels will be strong…this is NOT  a year to short protein on red wheats. Crude opened sharply lower, then raced back up. As you consider fuel needs for the summer, this thing is like a pendulum and will swing too far…BOTH ways. These are good levels to consider filling the tanks. Once we work through burdensome stocks (as production out ran demand last fall) it does not seem like $60-$80 crude this summer would be out of the question. COT report showed the specs short 55 myn Chic wheat, while the funds hold 690 myn bu long. Specs are also short in corn (about 120 myn bu) while the funds are long about 1.163 byn bu.

German gov’t is still planning increased taxes on bio-fuels to the tune of 6 euro/ litre…many plants there are only running at 60% capacity. Increase in Bio-fuel taxes may force many of the smaller plants to close. A Japanese panel has said that cloned animals are safe to eat. The Gov’t still has a ban in place. Perhaps we will see more changes in acceptance of things like GMO coming from Japan.

***Didja Know: About 80 myn people live in Egypt? About 18 myn of them live in Cairo….”The more laws, the less justice”…Cicero. The average newspaper is about 70% advertising…Beluga sturgeon can live up to 150 years old. Winston Churchill: The problem with capitalism is the uneven sharing of blessings, the problem with socialism is the even sharing of misery….

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      1/16/09

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

Fun Trivia:  Art Conn and Hardy Pyle waged a bet on who could stay under water the longest without the aid of any breathing apparatus.  Hardy jumped in the pool and managed to stay under for one minute.  Art knew he could never beat Hardy’s time using his method, but he won by staying under for two minutes using an old trick.  What did Art do?

Answer:  Art Conn filled a cup with water and stood under it for two minutes.

Note: I am planning on being on vacation for the first 2 weeks of January. Please contact Duane, Jon or Bryce for updates. We will continue posting bids as ‘indication only’. Thanks

 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      1/15/09

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

Fun Trivia:  Shadow squinted into the rising sun as the early mourning light reflected off the freshly fallen snow.  Shadow headed due east following the snow shoe tracks of Harry Fowl, the world famous photographer.  Suddenly to Shadow’s horror, he came upon the dead body of Harry Fowl.  He had been shot and killed by an arrow that entered his back, and pierced his heart.  Shadow raced back to the chalet where his weekend champions were just sitting down to breakfast.  All three men were shocked when Shadow relayed the tragedy.  Sam Slug kept muttering that he just couldn’t believe it.  Sid Shady said it seemed just moments ago that Harry told him he was going out to photograph various birds in their early mourning habit.  Buck Shot, who was counting his arrows, turned ashen white when he noticed one of them missing.  “ One of you is the killer,” said Shadow, Who does he suspect and why?

Answer:  Shadow suspects Shady.  Harry Fowl couldn’t have told Shady he was going out to photograph birds.  If he had, He would have not have headed east.  With the sun rising in that direction, it would have been very difficult to see anything but the silhouettes of the birds, and of course impossible to photograph them.

Note: I am planning on being on vacation for the first 2 weeks of January. Please contact Duane, Jon or Bryce for updates. We will continue posting bids as ‘indication only’. Thanks

 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      1/14/09

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

Fun Trivia:  Hardy pile was bragging about his church’s baseball team.  He said, “ Three of our players hit home runs and two of those home runs were hit with the bases loaded.  Our guys won 9-0 and not a not a single man crossed home plate.  “How was this possible?

Answer:  They were all married.

Note: I am planning on being on vacation for the first 2 weeks of January. Please contact Duane, Jon or Bryce for updates. We will continue posting bids as ‘indication only’. Thanks

 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      1/13/09