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      2/ 25/ 10

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

            It?s that time of year again??What will the AVERAGE AUGUST price be???guesses must be in by 3/1.

            NOTE: Due to market lack of interest, I dropped February and rolled everything forward 1 month!!! The $$ is higher, crude is off nearly $3. Grains are getting beat with corn down a nickel and Chicago down 11, KC and Mpls are down 7-8.  The export sales report this morning offered no encouragement. The corn numbers were sad. Traders ?HOPING? for 22-31 myn bu only got 15.8 myn bu?far short of USDA projections. Wheat sales weren?t bad with 13.8 myn bu sold, but again the problem in wheat and corn is actual shipments. Corn has plenty of time to catch up, but wheat only has about 14 weeks left in the ?09-10 year. Exporters are reporting very little interest/ activity. The MGEX will reduce their margin requirements since volatility has diminished. An FYI: there are about 66 myn bu of wheat under loan and 786 myn bu of corn?FND is Friday.

            Russia says their grain stocks are sitting at 20 myn mt vs. 23 myn last year. They have a goal to expand exports by 32% over the next 5 years. An increase that size equates to about 22 myn bu.  I expect they will turn their focus on the Asian/ Far east markets, and attempt to carve some market share from there next. The IGC (Int?l Grains Council) increased last years production up 1 myn mt, but also said they expect the ?10 crop to be about 16 myn mt (about the size of the exportable quantity of Aussie) smaller. So after their report old crop fundamentals took another hit. New crop they see the EU likely with a small increase, and Ukraine/ Russia with small decrease in production. Interesting article from ?down under?. The AWB said they are concerned that if the Aussie grain industry does not improve grain quality, Aussie could lose market share. (Sounds a bit like chicken little to me). They want a regulator to control Aussie grain quality (again 1 entity in charge of the wheat industry).

            The March prospective plantings report ought to be interesting, if for no other reason than to compare ?private estimates?. Generally growers ?back east? will plant beans when the corn / bean px ratio is 2.29 or better (beans worth 2.29x more than corn). Today for new crop the ratio is 2.28. In the last few years the ratio has run from 1.85 to 3.09. So for what the market is offering for n/c, there isn?t an advantage one way or the other today.

GOOD LUCK to the LOCAL BASKETBALL TEAMS STILL PLAYING!!!