It is no news to anyone reading this that the farmers of Ohio are fighting for their crops and their livelihoods. The hardy farmers of northeast Ohio got parts of two days this weekend to run beans on squishy ground.
December corn futures have now dropped exactly $2 from the 7.77 Aug. 30 high. The good news is that we may have finally put a bottom in.
The rain gauge told the story yesterday. I finally limped out there with my shepherd’s crook leaving holes in the ground. (That’s another story: I am getting old and brittle, and couldn’t find a cane in the house.) I knew it would be bad, since it had been more than a week, but I was [...]
Channeling Little Orphan Annie and Gone With the Wind to stay positive in this grain market.
Our short supply for the old grain crop is leading into fundamental numbers that make us think the tight supply continues for the next year.
It’s a seller’s market: Don’t look back at $7 corn and $14 beans and wonder why you didn’t sell those numbers going into harvest!
USDA cut the corn and soybean crop estimates in the Aug. 11 Crop Production Report, but the market has had two minds about the numbers. Initial reaction was for higher prices, then lower prices, then higher prices. This morning, Tuesday, the mood seems negative again. USDA now puts the corn crop at 12.914 billion bushels. [...]
Since the direction of the market for the remainder of the crop year depends mostly upon the size of the crops, the Aug. 11 USDA Crop Production Report is a big deal.
The casual view from the windshield is of good crops. The reality is that we are very late, however, and that exposes us to less yield and fears of maturity. A frost scare the end of September would change things a lot.
The grain market needs speculators, but they are fickle. They will set a price to take a profit and liquidate. If there are a lot of them following some trading company’s advice, the market can be adversely affected in a short time. They may even reverse positions, putting huge pressure on the market.
