Mark's Market Talk

The USDA released their June supply and demand report last Friday and it was about as neutral as it could be. They raised the carryout on both corn and beans just a bit, but it was well within what the trade expected so there weren’t any fireworks. For the week corn was lower while beans finished higher. July corn lost a nickel while the December contract was down 11. July beans gained 34 cents last week and the Nov contract was 21 higher. We could talk the world politics and who is trading with who. But the bottom line is we will trade weather at least through pollination and maybe clear to harvest. We just came off one of the driest Mays in history, we have seen several days of summer heat and the weather models still disagree. The USDA still used record yields Friday for both corn and beans. In order to achieve this, we need perfect weather all season and we are not seeing that in a wide area of the corn belt. The old adage “plant in dust and your bins will bust” has some merit, but we are past the planting stage and some of us still have dust. So, the volatility will continue for now and we will trade the weather. Those that have seen good rains are counting their blessings while others are questioning how they might survive should the drought set in. As always, the only guarantee in life or farming is there is no guarantee. Final thought, oats were up 21 cents last week, does the oat know?