Duane Disque or Brian Peiler                              Jon Sperl or Bryce Olson

             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      12/18/09

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

            Futures called higher, with wheat following the row crops, but that didn?t happen. When the informa report was leaked wheat went its own way. Wheat futures are up 6-7 while corn is down 1-3, in fact corn may find support from wheat before the day is over. FWIW: We are now 29% of the way through the corn marketing year, and have sold 23% of the revised lower USDA tally. NORMALLY, the US would be ?front loaded? on sales. Informa had this to say: Corn yields for 2009 are proj at 164.5 bpa vs. the USDA number of 162.9. They also had an estimate for beans with 44.7 bpa vs. USDA?s 43.3. Then they estimated the 2010 acreage: Est. corn acres of 89.5 myn acres vs. 86.3 myn this year. Winter wheat acres of 39.5 myn acres vs. 43.3 in ?09. the drop of winter wheat acres isn?t a shock since many SRW acres were prevented due to late corn harvest. So far as I can tell they did not venture a guess on spring wheat acres or beans. Higher futures prices WILL stimulate more plantings?world wide?guaranteed.

            International News: Turkey lifted its ban on GMO beans. ABARE says that wheat production and exports will increase in ?09-?10. They also said that Aussie production and exportable quantities will increase vs. last year, especially if the Aussie $ remains strong relative to other currencies. Aussie also says that their wheat exports are down 20% vs. this time last year (should not be a surprise considering slower world demand, and increased competition and stronger Aussie $). Agri Marketing in Ukraine is projecting winter wheat acreage up 3.7% vs. last year. If your keeping tally; France, Germany, Ukraine, Britain and Russia have confirmed higher winter wheat plantings for ?10. Here is something interesting: Yesterday, the Chinese Ministry of Finance said they will place import quotas on wheat, corn, paddy and rice. Then today the USDA attach? to China said they are sticking with their estimates that Chinese corn production will be down 9% this year vs. last, and Wheat production will be down 6% this year vs. last. In the official Chinese version that they have just had the 6^th straight year of bumper crops?SOMEONE is wrong. China has had no issues with importing beans. Agrium is getting final approval for a massive expansion to their Saskatchewan production. Most of the work will be done by 2014, with a completion goal of 2015. Expansion would increase production from 300m tons to 750m tons.   HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!