In the early 1970s, I finished spraying a field, and parked the tractor at the driveway with the booms still out. Then, I forgot about it.

When USDA released their monthly Crop Production and Supply and Demand Reports May 11, the market saw glimmers of hope amongst the nuggets of news. The shiny spots now appear to be fools gold. Reality sets in Markets spurted higher coming out of reports May 11, but reality struck later in the week and we [...]

A month ago, the market was talking about wet weather that would potentially slow the start of planting. Traders built a little delayed-planting premium into prices. Then, the weather changed dramatically, and so did the markets.

Grain prices have broken sharply lower the last few days, and the reason given is the effect of the Goldman Sachs fraud charges on the market.

In the nearly two weeks since the USDA’s Planting Intentions Report release, we have seen corn prices decline and soybean prices make small gains. Part of the confusion in the corn is that there was no surprise.

I can only talk about the March 31 USDA Planting Intentions Report so many times. It will soon be old news, but it is still the market mover right now, which is to say that the market is not moving.

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.