Grain Gleanings

The Three T's

By Matt Morog, Grain Department Manager

President-elect Trump picked Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture Secretary. She has a history with Trump serving in his administration last go around. She will inherit a $430 billion yearly budget and will be responsible for the next four years of policies and programs. I don’t expect any major policy changes in agriculture as I think the administration is going to be focused on other areas of policy. What could come into play though is what is to be done if tariffs and tax credits have a major negative impact on the rural economy.

Tariffs have been a major focus this election cycle and how Trump will impose them to bring other to the negotiation table. What’s not said is that many Trump implemented were still in place during the Biden admin. No one is certain who and to what extent tariffs will be utilized but there will be some obvious retribution from countries such as China who is our major bean buyer. Much like in 2018 it could have a very detrimental impact to bean exports. China’s growing bean and meal demand is already slowing down due to economic conditions in the country. If Brazil can pull some strong crops together our exports will look sluggish. Our export window is already very narrow and limited to when our cash price delivered China is more expensive than Brazil, so I’d argue that not much will change.

The bigger impact I think we will see will come from our domestic renewable/biodiesel tax credit program. This program as of today is set to expire on Dec 31, 2024. With the uncertainty on future programs blenders are not buying any renewable or bio past the new year. This current $1.00/gallon credit was set up during the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 but is full of holes as it allows for the importation of used veg and cooking oil from Asia. It would be my hope that the next program solves this problem and forces blenders to buy North American made products.  

11/27/2024

Reminders

By Becky Johnson, Elevator Location Manager, Salem

With another harvest wrapped up, a presidential election over, stable weather in South America, continued upheaval between Russia and Ukraine, and much needed precipitation in our area, the grain markets are reacting negatively this week, especially soybeans.   China did purchase 7.421 million bushels of soybeans Wednesday morning. We will see if that has a positive influence on the beans in the next couple of days.

A reminder for those of you storing grain on your farm.  It is a good idea to take the time once the wind & snow have tapered off to check and make sure the roof doors on your bins are closed securely and that you cannot smell any strong odor coming from your bins.  If you look inside your bin from the top door check to see if you have a crust forming on the grain.  It is never a bad idea to take the peaks off your grain if possible.

Now that the weather is getting cooler it may not be a bad idea to also run your aeriation fans when the humidity is down even for just a couple of days to help cool the grain down inside the bin.

Even though grain was relatively dry it is a good rule of thumb to keep an eye on your grain especially with the winds we have been having and the snow and rain. This moisture can seep inside your bin without you realizing and quickly turn well quality grain into low quality in a blink of an eye.

Wishing all a very Blessed Thanksgiving!

11/22/2024

Wrapping Up Harvest

By Hunter Behrens, Grain Originator, Lyons

Harvest has ramped down this week with a few producers finishing up. Harvest came and went in a blur with favorable moisture levels and minimal rain delays besides high wind days that could have created some delays. Soybean yields for the most part came in around average for the Lyons area with some higher yields to be desired with the way the crop looked before the dry spell we experienced through August and September. As of Thursday, the price of soybeans is weaker since bean harvest started in late September where beans rallied almost $1.00 from August nearly scratching $10 cash on September 27^th as we sit today beans are nearing $9.35. Corn yields seemed to meet or exceed expectations for most producers unless they experienced drowning out from the flooding this spring. The corn price through harvest has stayed steady around the $3.80 cash range with corn topping out in the mid $3.90s.

On Tuesday night the republican party won the election, and the stock market reacted favorably to that news having one of its best sessions in 2 years. Even commodities rallied shortly with that news but overall, a Red victory is expected to increase tariffs on China and Mexico which could have a negative effect on corn and soybean prices. Speaking of foreign affairs, exports for corn and soybeans are up 10+ percent from the previous 4-week average with corn net sales at 2,766,500 up 18% and soybeans net sales at 2,037,200 up 10%. South America had a favorable planting season and has received enough rain the past 30 days to expect normal emergence. The 2-week forecast calls for less than normal rainfall in southern Brazil and northern Argentina.

We appreciate everyone who delivered grain to our facilities and are happy to help during the busy time of harvest. Now that harvest is wrapping up and equipment is being put away please reach out to your local CFC originator to get a plan in place on the grain you have left for the rest of this marketing year.

11/8/2024

Central Farmers has a mobile app that provides real time account information at your hands. By partnering with barchart, we are able to empower you, our producers, to make informed and quicker business decisions with CFC. With our app you can:

• Access scale tickets virtually in real time, allowing you to know how many bushels you have delivered and how much still needs to be delivered. You are able to see the grade factors on each scale ticket such as Moisture and Test Weight.
• Access your contracts that you have with any CFC location. You will be able to see the status of any contract to find out whether it is filled or is still open.
• Access real-time bushel balances of your grain across all CFC locations.
• Access delayed cash bids for all of our CFC locations

You can find our App on Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for iPhones by searching for Central Farmers. Scan the QR code below for quicker download process. Download it today!