Mark's Market Talk

We had a 4-day trade last week due to Good Friday and perhaps that was a blessing as we had a down day Thursday. We came off the March 31 stocks report on a bullish note as corn and bean stocks both came in short. The weather in the northern plains was still cold and snowy and the odds of timely planting in those areas was doubtful. Late last week we saw warmer temps throughout the Midwest along with a drier pattern. By Friday there were some planters rolling and it appears this will be a big planting week for a wide area. That was enough to scare the trade and with the 3-day weekend ahead of them they backed off Thursday. May corn ended the week down 17 cents while the December contract was 10 cents lower. Over in the bean trade May was down 13 cents while the Nov new crop was down 10 cents. We need to remember that the planting season is just starting and has a long way to go. The northern plains need a lot of melting weather to clear the snow and dry the dirt. Worldwide the weather has been as volatile as the markets. It seems we have seen way more major storms in the past 30 days than normal. All we can do is make sure we do a good job with whatever we can control and hope for the best. If you spend a lot of time worrying about the weather and what not, all you do is drive yourself nuts. Some of your spouses may claim you are already nuts so be careful.