Mark's Market Talk

Some weeks there isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said. This has been one of those weeks. The grain markets pushed lower as weather forecasts for this week got cooler and a touch wetter. However, we continue to hear of areas that have suffered yield loss due to drought. It may not be huge areas, but over time it starts to add up. We are not out of the woods locally yet on our corn crop. The water tank is running low and the heat this past week sucked a lot of moisture out of our crops. The potential is still there for a good crop and I think that can be said for a majority of the major corn belt. Corn was also pressured late in the week with the announcement that they will start shipping Ukraine grain thru the Black Sea ports. They plan to ship wheat first and eventually corn. It may be a slow process, but it took some risk out of the corn and wheat markets last week. Beans have more time to get watered but, right now the August forecast looks to be hot and dry. Meanwhile old crop corn basis remains very strong as end users are hunting for corn to buy and the farmers that still own it are being tight fisted. Bean basis cheapened up last week as processors make out like they have their needs met to get to new crop. Their goal as always is to bring the old and new price together by offering less for the old crop. Some interior plants widened out 25 cents last Friday which came after they took 50 cents off earlier in the week. They may still need some beans in late August, but they are not going to pay up for them today. Corn ended last week 40 cents lower while the November bean contract was 26 cents lower. The start of harvest is 9 weeks away. It will not be a boring 9 weeks in the markets.