Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/28/09

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

            Weather is still the main driver of this bus, and weather man sez that most of the ECB will remain above average for precip the next 6-10 days. Sales report showed the weekly corn sales a robust 48.2 myn bu. Wheat sales were on 5.2 myn o/c and 4 myn n/c. Traders had hoped for something in the 13-16 myn bu range. We will still meet USDA projections at this pace though. US pork exports are down 8-12% since the start of the ‘swine flu’…good thing it wasn’t called the ‘grain flu’. We still haven’t a report of single sick animal! 13 countries have banned pork imports from the US, most notably China and Russia…even Mexico (our #3 pork customer) has seen levels drop dramatically.

            Chinese bean acres are expected to be down 15% in favor of more rice/ corn. Return / acre even in the US makes corn attractive. Argie says their bean production will be down to 34 myn mt vs. 46.2 last year, and farmers there are expected to plant some 18-19% fewer acres due to drought and gov’t interference. Overnight Japan booked 5.4 myn bu of wheat: .7 from Canada, and .7 from Aussie and 3 myn from the US; 1.8 was HRW, 1.5 DNS. Egypt was in last night and surprised some folks by booking Canadian vs. Russian wheat. Canada was .03/ bu cheaper than Russian. The cheapest US was SRW which was still .11/ bu too high. South Korea did book 8.7 myn bu of US corn last night.

            IGC says world wheat production will be off, but still hit 651 myn mt. They estimate demand at 642 myn mt. On corn they project a decrease to 778 myn mt, down 5 myn mt from last years 783, but they are quick to point out that a small yield/ production increase in the US could easily make up that difference. They are also basing their demand numbers on increased US ethanol demand (which is far from a certainty in today’s market). Even so, they are projecting c/o at a very comfy 129 myn mt. Or 5 byn bu.

***Didja Know: More tonnage is moved down the Ohio river than moves through the Panama Canal? Before being known for making cars, Detroit was better known for cigars and other tabacco products…A blue whale can produce a sound of up to 188 decibels, and can be heard from 530 miles away?

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/28/09

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

            Markets are expected to continue to work lower, as market positive news is very tough to come by. Crop progress/ condition reports from yesterday, were generally px negative: Winter wheat scores improved from 43% to 45% in the G-Ex category. Okie actually got worse gaining 4% points in the P-VP category to 64%. Texas is rated 73% P-VP. Spring wheat plantings are 25% behind the 5 year average, with only 15% planted. We were at 32% this time last year. For example: Mt is 24% planted vs. 48 last year, North Dakota is 1% vs. 30%, and South Dakota is 35% vs. 50% last year. So the red wheats are enjoying at least some friendly fundamentals today. Inspection report was totally neutral with 12.1 myn bu shipped…which is right where we need to be to hit USDA projections. Last week we shipped 1.4 myn SWW. Corn plantings surged to 22% last week, with most of the progress in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. Today the main concern is the ECB where Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are quite far behind even last years numbers.

            Swine flu continues have influence on all outside markets and will continue to have a negative influence till we ‘round the corner’. Oddly, this flu has not yet been detected in any animals, only people, yet you can see the impact on commodity markets.

            Germany will allow their first ‘open air’ trials on a GMO product…it will be potatoes from the German company BASF.

***Didja Know: Hollywood was founded in 1888 as a model city. No alcohol was allowed. There were about 500 residents until the movie industry arrived. The average brain is about 2% of the body weight, yet requires 15% of the hearts volume, 20% of the oxygen we breathe, and 25% of all the glucose. The average human blinks about 6.2 myn times/ year. Only about 1/25^th of the energy used in a light bulb is actual light the rest is heat.

***All bids are subject to change, please call for CONFIRMATION of prices. All information in this letter is from sources deemed reliable, and is for informational purposes only***

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/27/09

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

            In a news starved market there is always over reaction, this morning won’t be any different. News of “WORLD PANDEMIC” swine flu are making headlines everywhere, and I expect the sky to come crashing down anytime now. Beans are called down 40-50, corn down 12 to 15, and wheats 10 to 13. After the initial shock things ought to settle down a bit. It is wet and will likely stay that way most of the next 7-10 in most of the corn belt (eastern side is a bit further behind). Excessive delays will mean more bean acres. As bean drug this market higher, they will also help ease it lower, as there is now no ‘need’ to buy bean acres. COT was interesting, but really just explains what we saw last week: specs pressured HRW and corn; sold 20 myn bu of HRW, and sold some 235 myn bu of corn. It is always interesting to see who is doing what in the markets. New Cali ‘Low Carbon Fuel’ standards passed last week, will likely violate NAFTA in regards to the Canadian oil sands. It sure seems that sometimes legislation gets passed without much thought of implementation. USDA will send out an 8 page survey on ‘Organic’ farm survey…just a heads up.

            Russia joined the list of countries that are already banning US pork. Over the weekend we saw bans put in place by China, Thailand, Philippines and now Russia. Russia alone was the #5 pork importer from the US. Stats Canada says they expect Canola acreage to be down 7.2% this year.

***Didja Know: there are 47 myn bu of wheat under loan in the US? 600,000 bu in Oregon, 4.4 myn in Idaho, and 5.98 myn in Washington? There are about 779 myn bu of corn under loan? If Mt Everest were placed in the deepest part of the ocean, its peak would still be mile under water? In 1968 in Liechtenstein, there was a vote to determine whether women should be allowed to vote. ONLY women were allowed to vote on this….the result of the vote, was that women voted that they should NOT be allowed to vote.

***All bids are subject to change, please call for CONFIRMATION of prices. All information in this letter is from sources deemed reliable, and is for informational purposes only***

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/24/09

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

            Markets were called both higher and lower, and have in fact traded both sides of the slate already this morning. Wheats, and Corn were up as much as 3-4 before posting reversals and both are now down. Wheats are down a couple and corn is off 3. Weather man sez rain in the Midwest will end a nearly perfect week of farming weather. Rain and snow in Montana (a grower I talked to yesterday said the wind chill was ?9). After a couple days of 65?s it was down to 22 with strong winds. Soil temps are in the low/ mid 40?s. They would typically like to have spring seeding done by 5/10 or so?and still might make it, but weather must straighten out. With wet weather in the plains this past week, we should see an improvement in crop scores on Monday. Markets (futures anyway) are still being made by the specs. The specs have added to their short positions, mostly at the expense of the index funds?who have added over 80 myn bu of length to their corn positions in the last month. Bloomberg says that commodity funds have seen a record 1^st quarter as far as ?new money? coming in, and estimate the new investments at $22 byn last quarter. Energies have seen an additional $5.9 byn.

            Sales reports yesterday were disappointing for wheat with only 8.5 myn sold last week (only 100,000 bu ? 1 barge of SWW). Corn posted strong numbers of 47.8 myn bu but will need more help as ethanol continues to struggle. Calif voted 9-1 to count emissions from production and distribution of fuels toward reducing GHG as they adopted what they call ?low carbon fuel standards?. This will take some shine off of ethanol, and if copied across the country will hurt the ethanol industry.

            China is expected to release some corn from their reserves to dampen domestic prices. Paki will decide in May whether or not to EXPORT wheat. They are nearing the 50% harvest mark, and both yields (better varieties, weather and fertilizer availability) and also areas planted are up. They may export up to 1 myn mt (36.7 myn bu). Yields this year are running about 4 mt/ ha vs. 2.5 mt/ ha last year.

***Didja Know: California uses 11% of all the gasoline burned in the US? The densest wood in the world is the ?Black Ironwood?? It doesn?t float. It is estimated that there is 50 times more ?groundwater? than fresh water in all the worlds lakes and rivers? Also an estimate; the top 10? of the world?s oceans hold as much heat as the entire atmosphere?

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/16/09

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

            Sales report was extremely strong for Beans at 29.7 myn bu vs. a goal of only 6 myn bu. Corn also enjoyed a nice week with 34.6 myn bu vs. a projection of 17.2 to hit the USDA number of 1.7 byn bu. USDA will likely need to revise the corn export number higher, but also likely to reduce the ethanol usage?  Wheat had a very weak week with only 4.5 myn bu in sales: .3 myn DNS, 1.2 myn HRW, .7 SRW and 1.6 myn SWW. We will likely hit our export projections on all classes of wheat, its just that together they only tally 980 myn bu, leaving big carryouts in all classes. LDP?s will now be calculated differently. So repayment of loans will be based on loan rate plus interest OR the average of all terminal markets for that specific crop over either a 30 day moving average or a 5 day moving average which ever is less. So things just got a whole lot more complicated. So rather than try to track all of that for now, we will post 2011 bids as they are available.

            China?s gov?t is still projecting a healthy 6.5% growth for the year. They have been actively buying up grain stocks to stabilize domestic prices for growers and taxing imports to protect them as well. To date they have bot 42 myn mt of wheat (45% more than last year), and have offers to buy 40 myn mt of corn (25% of last years production). Currently they have a 65% import tax on wheat, and 20% import tax on corn. Overnight Egypt booked 4.2 myn bu of Russian wheat at $4.71 FOB and 2.2 myn bu of French wheat at $4.94 FOB. EU?s Strategie Grains says they will carryin a very hefty 6 myn mt (220 myn bu) of wheat into n/c. Ukraine has raised their harvest forecast by 6.7% to 48 myn mt for 2009-10.

            I will be out of the office for the next week. Please call the contact numbers above. I expect to be back next Friday (4/24). Thanks.

***Didja Know: Women tend to strike matches away from themselves, while men strike matches toward themselves? The Bay of Fundy has the greatest difference between high and low tides on earth?they can range up to 54??sound travels 4 times faster in water than in air.

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/14/09

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

            Congress allocated $5.5 byn to GSM 102 credits for the year. These are the credits that exports use to guarantee a sale (if buyer doesn?t perform, the gov?t guarantees payment). 15% of the funds for the year were used just last month?.Crop progress report: Corn is 2% planted (right on track with last year) but behind the 5 year avg of 6%. Weather man says a high system will move in and provide some nice weather for the next 7 days or so. Winter wheat is 9% headed vs. 4% last year, and 6% on a 5 year ave. 42% of the winter wheat was rated G-Ex vs. 47% last year?one item worth mentioning is the category of poor/ very poor also increased last week. Spring wheat planting is 2% vs. 8% normal.

            Beans are leading everything higher this morning as demand remains steady / strong. With all the talk of the North Dakota flooding, there has been talk of 300,000-500,000 acres FEWER spring wheat acres planted. If spring wheat doesn?t go in, then it will be row crops (beans, corn). SRW basis continues to trade at -$1.19.

            One of the things to remember when looking at numbers is what do they really represent? For example, we compare a lot of numbers vs. last year. France said that soft wheat acres will be down 3% vs. last year?but we need to remember that last year represented BIG acreage increases. The news loses some of its luster when you consider that even with a 3% reduction that acreage will still be 1.4% higher than a 5 year average. So far no major weather concerns from the EU, Black Sea, FSU.

***Didja Know: When a flea jumps, they accelerate 20 times faster than the space shuttle at launch? They can jump 130x their own height. That would be like a 6? human jumping 780? into the air? If you shrunk a car to the size of a roach, the roach could out run the car?they can run up to 200 mph. It is estimated that worldwide, there are about 1007 men for every 1000 women.

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/10/09

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

            No markets today, so lets sort through yesterday’s S&D’s and see what we can salvage.

WHEAT; World: C/O in world wheat stocks were about 128 myn mt in ’06-07, 122 myn mt in ’07-08. Yesterdays’ report estimates that C/O for ’08-09 will be about 158 myn mt or about 1.3 byn bu more than last year. (Nearly ½ of those are in the US). Wheat stocks grew about 82 myn bu vs. last month. Wheat acres world wide are expected to be lower, but according to the latest FAS report, stocks will continue to build due to reduced demand (less wheat used for feed, reduced demand for milk/ protein products). US: USDA did some minor tweaks to the S&D’s with imports (DNS/ Durum up 5 myn bu) and feed usage up 20 myn bu. Lately sales have been slightly stronger than required to balance the S&D ledger, so we may see some minor tweaking in the export numbers going forward. I will just attach an S&D file, so can see for yourself the c/o by class. Stocks are ample, even a bit ‘loose’. US will carryin about 696 myn bu all wheat vs. 254 lyr.  SWW carryout is down to 62 myn bu, which is large, but not awful. They are however nearly 3x higher than last year. Bullish: specs are short, unknown damage to Southern plains, what will eventual acreage of spring wheat be? Long way to harvest. Bearish: specs are short, carryout stocks are very burdensome, US prices are about $1/ bu to high vs. India, Russia, Kazi, Ukraine, EU to compete for ‘swing demand’.

CORN: World: Stocks were trimmed by about 1.3 myn mt as production was lowered in Argie, and Brazil a bit more (Current est: Argie: 13.5 myn mt vs. 22 lyr, Brazil 50.1 mmt vs. 58.6 lyr). Corn stox 06-07 were 108.7 myn mt, 08-09 were 129.6, and this year are projected at 143.3 myn mt (593 myn bu increase (about 410 myn bu is in the US). US: USDA increased feed usage 50 myn bu and took food/ seed down 10. From our little corner of the world a net increase of 70 myn bu of feed use (wheat/ corn) seems odd, however, if we maintain export pace that number will need to be nudged higher. There is some reason to expect that ethanol usage could be tweaked lower to somewhere around 3.6 byn bu. It is interesting to note that IF the 3/31 acreage estimate stands up, AND demand returns to 07-08 levels that our corn c/o will decline for 09-10 by just a couple 100 myn bu. Bullish: Exports have been steady/ strong (thanks to SAM problems), weather delays in spring field work. Bearish: I have a feeling that at least part of the 7 myn ‘principle acres’ lost on the 3/31 report will eventually find their way to corn. Corn c/o of 1.7 byn bu means there is ZERO chance of running out of corn before harvest. Ethanol, Cattle Feed and milk margins are all negative.

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/9/09

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

Fun Trivia:  There is a famous diamond displayed in a room which measures 15 meters by 15 meters by 15 meters.  The room is made entirely of concrete blocks and the floor is covered with a thick carpet.  The only thing in the room is the diamond which is housed under a glass cube.  The glass cube stands on a 1 meter pedestal in the center of the room.  Alarm wires spaced 8 centimeters apart and running parallel to each other lie under the carpet.  The alarm will trigger if more than 4kilometers of pressure is applied to any individual wire.  Sid Shady, who weighs 74 kilograms was able to steal the famous diamond using the following equipment:  a 5 meter 2x4 board, four leather straps (each 2 meters long and 5 cm wide), a hammer, and a saw.  How could he do it without triggering the alarm?

Answer:  Sid Shady stole the diamond in the following manner:  First, He cut the 5 meter 2x4 board in half.  Then, using the available straps, he fastened the two boards to his feet like skies.  With the boards strapped to his feet, his weight was displaced enough so that he did not exceed the wires tolerance and trigger the alarm.  Shay then slowly and carefully walked to the center of the room, smashed the glass cube with the hammer, took the diamond and returned the same way he came in.

***All bids are subject to change, please call for CONFIRMATION of prices. All information in this letter is from sources deemed reliable, and is for informational purposes only***

 Morrow County Grain Growers                             Pendleton Grain Growers

             Duane Disque or John Ripple                              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      4/6/09