USDA’s March crop production report says we have the highest ending stocks of 12 years. That cannot be a good thing, comments grain merchandiser Marlin Clark.

Farmers are facing the need to sell corn for spring cash flow into a weak market that continues lower over the last few days.

I should have learned by now. I have been bitten so often. Once bitten, twice shy. How shy for bitten as much as I have.
The thing is, the proper answer for almost any question I get these days should be, “I haven’t got a clue.” I need to get this fixed in my mind […]

The next big news is projected plantings, out the end of March from USDA. If low prices compared to input costs limit corn acres, we can get some pop in the market.

It is hard to get excited about selling me grain when corn has dropped 60 cents, beans are off $1.40 since Jan. 4, and wheat is down almost 90 cents.

The grain markets crashed after the USDA Inventory Report earlier this month.

In my grandmother Faragher’s Manx household was the tradition of the “Qualtagh.”
The qualtagh, the first visitor to your home in the New Year, was a harbinger of the household fortunes for the year. A young, vigorous man was as good as it gets. A crusty, broken down old farmer meant you should dig a hole […]

In NASCAR the so-called “silly season” is that period at the end of the year when teams are realigning. Drivers are going to other teams, teams are changing leadership or swapping drivers. People are hired, fired.

Everyone knows this next year is the year. Just ask the Cubs or, for that matter, the Indians.

Silly season […]

Last week we looked at charts, trying to find signals of direction. Well, we know more about direction now.
Corn prices broke sharply on the Chicago Board of Trade this week for no particular reason I can think of. That should give you confidence that you are not wasting your time reading this!
Actually, the […]

It is hard to get a handle on where markets are going these days. The easiest method, with the least recriminations when you are wrong, is to look in the rearview mirror.