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Iowa girls state basketball tournament = snow. March coming in like a lion = March going out like a lamb. How often are these right? At lease the snow won’t stay around very long with the current forecast. At last week’s USDA outlook meeting we got an early look at this year’s planting figures. The precursor to the March 31st Prospective Planting report has corn acres just over 90 mln acres up 2 mln from last year. The soybean acres are roughly unchanged vs. last year at 82.5 mln. With plenty of corn and bean inventory around the world, prices are expected to remain within our current trading range. As I have mentioned before, we’ll need some type of weather issue during planting or during our growing season to get the funds to change their mind set. We will lose this crop several times before we get it put in the bin. Processors are now biding off of the May futures. Iowa Falls Cargill has scheduled their yearly maintenance starting April 7th through April 24th. Cedar Rapids Cargill usually has their maintenance sometime in August. These down times will affect basis values and need to be watched. I don’t think the bean processors have their needs covered much beyond the middle of March. Beans do have a little carry to April. Last fiscal years patronage checks will be mailed tomorrow (Weds). Thank you for your support! Phase 2 update: Soil sample was taken a couple of weeks ago. As soon as we can the dirt work will start on the new wet bin. We did unload the fill and unload conveyors last week. Watch your grain bins for quality issues. I know a lot of corn didn’t get dried last fall. Good luck to the area basketball teams as they start their state tournament games. Have a good week! Bob |
