Volatile Grain Market

[BillinCentralMO]

Been watching these prices since last fall to sell the rest of our 2020 corn and beans. It’s sure been a wild ride so far. Hope the others on here benefit. Best prices we have seen in quite awhile. They are talking of possible $16 beans and $6 corn.
 

[paul]

Sold the beans off the field as I combined them, they were nearly a dollar better than I was expecting and I had a balloon loan due. The volatile politics and international situations seemed too easy to drop bean prices, with basically one world customer for beans and USA exports nearly 50%, it was exceptional to see the one dollar rise.....

Well, we sure blew past that.

Corn I held onto, and have been selling along the way in bits. Corn we use here in this country so we determine the price, not so much other countries. Well, then the govt so badly mismanaged predicting our carry over supplies, totally changed the game with their ‘corrections’ this past report. Then China comes along and buys a bit of corn not really much but it’s significant they buy any at all, now the past day they buy a good quantity of ethanol. Big news! New demand for corn, when we find we have less corn than we thought we did.

Going to be wild rollercoaster until it gets sorted out.

Paul
 

[rrlund]

I sure wish cattle would follow. Guess who's getting CFAP 3? It ain't us cattle guys. USDA is doing a real good job of creating hard feelings between different groups of farmers.
 

[flying belgian]

Paul, I'm doing the same as you with corn. Selling two tandem loads at a time on the ride up.
 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

Sold the beans at harvest to pay bills. Sold the last of the corn for April delivery for $5.10. Was hoping for $5.20 as trucking cost .20 but when it went down decided to take the $5.10. Sent 10 fat blacks today. Hope that market soon wakes up. With current box beef prices it looks like the packers are stealing about $20-30 per hundred weight from us. Tom
 

[paul]

Probably going off topic now, but the action in the stock market trading and the head scratching rule changes to protect the big fish is really something to watch unfold the last couple days, it makes the grain markets look pretty tame!

Paul
 

[BillinCentralMO]

They are taking about possibly reaching negative carryout on beans. And observing it is theoretically impossible.
 

[rrlund]

Just an addendum, I went to a link at United Producers website and came up with a graph from Farm Bureau "predicting" CFAP payments to cattle producers. I called the FSA office and was told that there "might" be. They just plain don't know yet.
 

[paul]

If we get there, and to those prices then, I have a 100 bu in the corner of thr grain dry I never swept out.......

Crazy the corn is going up too, with unexpected exports of it and ethanol.

Paul
 

[Texasmark1]

Went to town Friday and going over the RR tracks I came upon a grain train, maybe 100 cars just sitting there. Cars were interrupted where road/driveways crossed which told me that somebody has shipped but the shipper is waiting for better prices. Probably going to Houston to be exported when the time is right.

What I don't understand is that this isn't a siding. It's a well traveled set of rails and I don't know how they can block it like that.
 

[Texasmark1]

I went to town again yesterday and those grain carrier cars were still there. So I checked my odometer and that train is about 3 miles long, with breaks where roads and driveways cross the line. What I don't understand is that is a single main (I guess it's a main of some sort) line and I have seen trains on it. To have it blocked off and used as a "parking lot" makes me wonder......what happened to the traffic it normally carries?
 

[paul]

The rail companies do odd things sometimes, anyhow from the outside looking in.

Here grain goes to the Pacific Northwest, and its been real slow for several years, dont see many trains. Now the past 2 months, trains rolling all the time.

I dont think thry have gone to the super long ones here, with the engine in the middle to help pull. Maybe still about 105 cars or so as the normal.

Paul