Madelia	Corn	Soybeans
Change	Bid	Change	Bid
May 12	10.50	6.48	-33.00	13.60
June 12	10.50	6.48	-33.00	13.60
July 12	10.50	6.48	-33.00	13.60
August 12	10.50	6.44	-25.00	13.12
October 12	8.75	4.99	-18.25	12.24
November 12	8.75	4.99	N/A	N/A
December 12	8.75	5.01	N/A	N/A
January 13	7.25	4.99	N/A	N/A

Summer 2011 Grain Update

Published On:8/5/2011
Author:Jeff Spence
Categories:Grain, Admin

Hard to believe summer is almost half over, and we didn’t even have any spring!

Operation Updates:

The building project in Madelia is proceeding along well even with all the rain we have had so far this year. The sheeting on the roof is expected to be completed by the end of July. The cement floor should be finished by the middle of August, and the millwork should be completed by the end of August. The new outbound scale and scale building have been completed and are already in use to speed up dumping capabilities. We are also installing the CompuWeigh Smart Truck dumping system to not only increase the speed of the scales but also the accuracy of putting the correct name on all the scale tickets. We still fully expect that all the construction at the Madelia site will be done prior to the fall harvest.

Trains have been coming on a timely basis, and we are hoping the flooding will not get any worst to change this pattern. We fully expect to have all the elevators empty by harvest and ready to handle this year’s crops. We are not expecting to see many changes in discount, drying, and storage charges this year. We will send out a notification prior to harvest.

Markets:

Whoa! The markets this year continue to be a roller coaster ride. With so many things playing into the markets from around the world there is no way to predict the highs and lows. The June 30 USDA acreage report numbers were a big surprise. They found more corn acres (92.3 million acres) than the trade was guessing (90.7 million acres). They also raised our corn on hand by 368 million (now estimating on hand bushels to 3.267 billion). In beans, they reduced the acreage (75.2 million acres) from trade expectations (76.5 million acres) but raised our beans on hand by 29 million (.619 million bushels verses .590 million bushels). The funds are running for cover and liquidating long positions for now. USDA has announced that there could be a problem with their acreage numbers and they will update them in August. The bears will be in control for a while but weather, China purchases, Greek defaults, or other unexpected events could still be a major factor that could change the pricing outlook prior to harvest.

Employee Updates:

I want to welcome some new employees to the grain division. Brett Annexstad has recently joined us as a replacement for Christian Eberhart. Brett will be handling the grain origination for the east side of our territory. Brett is from a farm near St. Peter and has previous work experience with CHS in Grain Merchandising. At our Madelia location, Chad Clobes is now the Grain Superintendent, Nathan Boomgarden is a new Grain Operator and Corey Wiederhoeft is our Summer Intern. At our Lake Crystal location, Joe Williams has joined Grain Operations replacing Marty Christenson who has retired. At our Janesville location, Logan Juliar and Tanner Flitter have joined our Grain Operations. We feel we have made some great additions to our work force and hope you get a chance to get to meet and know each of these employees you will be working with for years to come.