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What's Happening in MarketMaxx?
May 28, 2008
Midnight, May 31 – this week – is the deadline to get signed up for MarketMaxx!
It’s your last chance to start playing the fun and rewarding marketing game from Corn & Soybean Digest. If you’re an eligible farmer, you could win a year’s free use of a new combine or tractor.

Go to www.MarketMaxx.net right now and get started playing.

As a MarketMaxx player you'll have a simulated 100,000 bu. of corn and 50,000 bu. of soybeans to trade using Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) futures, options or cash-forward contracts. The eligible farmer with the highest average selling price of his or her virtual corn or soybeans when the contest ends Oct. 31, 2008, will take home a grand prize.

By playing MarketMaxx, you can sharpen your skills at using futures and options trading. In today’s volatile corn and soybean markets, coupled with record input costs, it could mean a big difference on the bottom line.

MarketMaxx Prizes
More than 8,220 players are signed up for MarketMaxx. Grand prize for the corn contest is a Gleaner R5 or A5 series combine (up to 100 combine separator hours). The soybean winner will receive a year's use (not to exceed 250 hours) of the choice of any PowerMaxx CVT-equipped AGCO RT or DT series tractor.

Second prize for each contest is a complete computer system plus software from Syngenta Crop Protection. Third prize in the corn contest is a complete Leica mojoRTK auto-steer system from Leica Geosystems. Third prize in the soybean contest and fourth prize in the corn contest is a DICKEY-john mini GAC Plus handheld moisture tester.


By signing up, you’ll continue receiving this MarketMaxx e-newsletter, which will keep you updated on the game through its listing of top 10 players in the corn and soybean contests. The latest market commentary from leading university and private grain marketing specialists -- information you can use to enhance your corn and soybean marketing program -- is available in every newsletter. It will continue to arrive in your e-mail box every other week throughout the year -- but only if you’re signed up by May 31.

So go to www.MarketMaxx.net and get started playing MarketMaxx. But don’t put it off. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.


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MarketMaxx Leaderboard (May 27, 2008)
Top 10 Leaders – Corn Contest
Roy Sangmeister, Manhattan, IL, $7.78.73
Corey Brandau, Peotone, IL, $7.66.97
Ralph Sangmeister, Peotone, IL, $7.00.5
Chris Schnell, Sully, IA, $6.97.97
Brian Roh, Dodgeville, WI, $6.93.54
Arlan Shelly, Atmore, AL, $6.88.47
Terry Hiatt, Atlanta, MO, $6.83.34
David Bitto, Elberta, AL, $6.77.97
Charles Bonner, Summerdale, AL, $6.77.35
David Womack, Atmore, AL, $6.75.47

Top 10 Leaders – Soybean Contest
Roy Sangmeister, Manhattan, IL, $19.56.09
Corey Brandau, Peotone, IL, $19.43.77
Ed Krelo, Elkville, IL, $1688.82
Steve Mercer, Kearney, NE, $16.39.1
Andy Bensend, Dallas, WI, $15.96.98
Jeremy Svitak, Howells, NE, $15.70.97
Rick Lemke, Mequon, WI, $15.28.83
Jim Spahr, Seward, NE, $15.10.9301
Arlin DePatis, Walnut, IL, $15.02.95
Holly Utterback, Robinson, IL, $14.83.45






Market Commentary

Not Enough Corn For 2008-2009?
By Chris Hurt, Purdue University Extension economist

Can the U.S. raise enough corn in 2008 to meet the consumption base that is developing? The answer is probably not; at least not everyone who has been using U.S. corn will have that opportunity in the 2008/09 marketing year.

Take as an example the consumption base from the 2007 crop at 13 billion bushels and add another 1 billion bushels of new ethanol capacity. That gives a base of 14 billion bushels of use, but USDA’s first projection of crop size is only 12.1 billion bushels. This means two things will occur. First, end users must cut back on consumption and secondly, corn stocks will be reduced to bare minimums by August 2009.

Which of the end users will cut back on corn consumption? USDA has made its first projection and say it will be almost everyone. They have cut the amount of corn the animal industry will use from 6.15 billion from the 2007 crop to just 5.3 billion from the 2008 crop. This reduction of 850 million bushels can be adjusted by about 250 million bushels of corn equivalent that will come from feeding distiller’s grains. So that means a reduction of around 600 million in feed/residual use or a 10% cutback. 



Foreign buyers will have to cut back on U.S. corn supplies as well. USDA suggests it will reduce purchases from the record 2.5 billion bushels to 2.1 million or a 16% reduction. These huge reductions will be necessary to accommodate another 1 billion bushels of corn for U.S. ethanol, which will reach 31% of total corn use. This is up from 14% for the 2005 crop. Most importantly, ending stocks in August 2009 will be depleted to just 763 million bushels, a mere 22 day’s supply. 



There is much to be determined before we reach August 2009. Final corn acreage and yields are the first to consider. Corn planting is late in the Eastern Corn Belt, but desperately late in the Western Corn Belt. Minnesota and Missouri were about 50% behind on corn planting earlier this month. Iowa and South Dakota each were 30% or more behind. The nation was 26% behind the five-year average.

This season is the latest corn planting rate back to 1980. Late planting is associated with lower corn yields on average across the country. 

Summer weather is much more important to yields than planting date. So, I would reduce the expected yields by about 3 bu./acre now to 151 bu., but since summer weather determines maybe 75-80% of the yield, a favorable weather summer could still bring yields back to, or even above trend. 



Planted acres still remain unknown. Economic returns continue to favor planting corn in the Midwest through late May, even if expected yields have started downward due to late planting. This is because corn prices are so strong relative to soybeans. Purdue budgets and market prices on May 13, suggest more than $100/acre higher expected returns for corn compared to soybeans. This means that late-planted corn yields could drop 20 bu./acre before soybeans begin to show greater returns.

In addition, soybean seed is difficult to secure.

 I’m estimating that corn acreage will be at 88 million acres compared with the USDA survey level of 86 million acres. With 151-bu. yields, this would mean a crop size of 12.2 billion bushels, just slightly higher than the current USDA number. Continued cool weather suggests slow progress on completing planting. This should continue to be a price friendly factor.



Finishing old-crop pricing now should be considered except for those bushels one wants to “bet” on a weather scenario this summer. Once the corn is planted, some concerns will be reduced until the summer weather patterns begin to develop. This may mean a period of somewhat lower prices in late-May and June. 

Corn prices have reached the levels mentioned in past updates ($6.40 July futures and $6.50 on December futures). Bids are generally 8-12 cents higher for July delivery, so consider pricing on-farm stored corn for July delivery.

Generally, commercially stored corn will not cover the added storage costs to July. 

Without 2008 weather problems, corn prices may be near their highs. First, consider new crop wheat bids in the range of $6-6.50 bu. Corn has about 90%, of the feeding value of wheat which means corn might be capped at about $5.40-5.85 if there is sufficient wheat to begin feeding some to livestock. Very good wheat yields could lower those numbers.

Secondly, ethanol processors’ current corn breakeven prices are about $5.75, (with record high crude oil at $125 per barrel). They can bid somewhat higher on corn prices, but will begin to move into losses. Of course the direction of crude oil will also be important with higher crude potentially related to higher corn prices.

The 2008 crop will be the tightest corn supplies yet in the biofuels era. This means prices will remain strong, but there are limits to how high that price can be. December futures at $6.50 had been the objective and that has now been achieved, so consider pricing up to 40% of expected new crop production.

 A number of elevators have restored their new crop pricing programs with calmer price movements in recent weeks.

Basis bids are generally still wider than I believe they will be at harvest. This favors working with a commodity broker to establish new-crop futures or options positions. However, many will prefer to work with their elevator manager as normal and not spend the summer worrying about potential margin calls from their broker.



There is a long way to go. The market has little idea of actual planted acres this year; yields are clearly not known and will depend on summer weather; usage will need to be cut sharply and we do not know who is going to cut back.


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Additional Commentary
Crude Oil Price Hikes Impact On The Farm
Between 2003 and 2007, the majority of corn and soybean production cost increases can be attributed to crude oil price increases, according to a new University of Illinois Extension study.
 "If crude oil prices continue to rise, production costs for corn and soybeans likely will continue to rise," says Gary Schnitkey, a U of I Extension farm financial management specialist.

"Rising energy costs have brought into existence an era of high production costs for corn and soybeans. These higher costs necessitate higher corn and soybean prices for farmers to be profitable."

That is the conclusion of Schnitkey's report, "Impacts of Rising Crude Oil Prices on Corn and Soybean Production Costs," that is available on Extension's farmdoc website, www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/manage/newsletters/fefo08_10/fefo08_10.html. The report's co-author is Anuj Gupta, a former undergraduate student in the U of I Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics.

"Crude oil prices, corn production costs and soybean production costs have tended to move together over time," says Schnitkey. "Recently, for example, crude oil prices and production costs have increased dramatically.

"Between 2003 and 2007, crude oil prices increased by $39 per barrel, a 138% increase, corn production costs in central Illinois on high-productivity farmland increased by $100/acre, a 42% increase, and soybean costs increased by $45/acre, a 28% increase."

Looking at the relationship among these prices since 1972, Schnitkey and Gupta found that each $1 increase in crude oil price increases corn production costs by $1.51/acre and increases soybean production costs by 90 cents/acre.

"Between 2003 and 2007, crude oil price increases accounted for 58% of corn cost increases and 79% of soybean cost increases," says Schnitkey. "From 1972 through 2007, inflation accounted for an average yearly increase in production costs of $3.78/acre for corn and $4.26/acre for soybeans. Due to crude oil price increases, corn costs in 2008 are expected to be $48/acre higher than in 2007 and soybean costs are expected to increase by $29/acre."

The report also notes that model results can be used to predict corn and soybean costs based on anticipated crude oil prices. "Forecasts of costs should be viewed with caution as oil prices are outside the range of prices used to estimate the model," says Schnitkey. "Often, poor forecasting experience occurs in these cases. Given this caution, our model suggests that large increases in crude oil prices could lead to significantly higher corn and soybean costs.

"For example, a $120 crude oil price implies a $78 increase in corn costs, a 23% increase over 2007 corn costs. Soybean costs would increased by $47/acre given the $120 crude oil price, a 23% increase over the 2007 soybean costs. A $150 crude oil price results in a $124/acre corn cost increase, 36% over 2007, and a $74/acre soybean cost increase, 36% over 2007 levels."






Other News That Can Impact Corn And Soybean Prices

Finally … A Farm Bill
After well over a year of cussing and discussing, the new Farm Bill has been passed, despite being vetoed by President George W. Bush. And any doubts that farm organizations and other supported the 2008 Farm Bill conference report were laid aside when more than 1,000 of them sent a letter to the House and Senate urging them to override the president’s veto.

Farm Press reports that the groups also mounted a massive telephone and e-mail campaign that left no doubt where the majority of the nation’s farmers stood on the conference report, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. The House subsequently voted to override the veto by a vote of 318-106. Because of a mistake in the enrollment process, the House revoted on the bill’s Trade and Food Aid Title, which was inadvertently omitted from the bill sent to the president on May 20. The Senate also had the override votes to offset the president.

The National Farmers Union’s Tom Buis, who was credited by House leaders with being one of the prime behind-the-scene movers on the farm bill, summed up the feeling of most farm organizations. “There is widespread support for the farm bill, both across this great nation and in Congress as we saw in last week’s super-majority votes,” he says.

National Corn Grower Association (NCGA) leaders also supported the override, while defending the Average Crop Revenue Enhancement (ACRE) program against Bush administration attacks. “We are gratified that the farm bill received bipartisan support from the House,” says NCGA President Ron Litterer. “This is a bill that producers have needed for some time.”

In the letter sent by the 1,054 state and national organizations, the authors said the “conference report makes significant farm policy reforms, protects the safety net for all of America’s food producers, addresses important infrastructure needs for specialty crops, increases funding to feed our nation’s poor, and enhances support for important conservation initiatives.

“This is by no means a perfect piece of legislation, and none of our organizations achieved everything we had individually requested. However, it is a carefully balanced compromise of policy priorities that has broad support among organizations representing the nation’s agriculture, conservation and nutrition interests.”

Among the revisions in the farm bill is the elimination of the three-entity rule. Also, says Farm Press, spouses are provided greater equity. Redemptions of loans with certificates no longer will be authorized and limitations on marketing loan gains are eliminated. Cumulative limits on direct and counter-cyclical payments are maintained at current levels resulting in a 50% reduction for some growers due to the termination of the three-entity rule.

The agreement significantly tightens an income means test first enacted in 2002, by providing that individuals with non-farm income exceeding $500,000 will be ineligible for all program benefits, and those with farm income exceeding $750,000 will be ineligible for decoupled income support. These and other modifications to eligibility standards in this farm will help ensure program benefits are directed to true farmers.

U.S. Biodiesel Industry Faces Tough Times
Knight Ridder newspapers reports that 10 months after the nation's largest biodiesel plant opened on the coast of Washington state, its owners are facing the same financial pressures that have brought a once high-flying industry down to earth.
 Imperium Renewables Inc., has delayed a $345-million initial public offering, put on hold its plans for four additional plants and trimmed its corporate staff. Its chief executive officer resigned without explanation.

The $78-million plant on the Pacific coast is still operating, even though prices of soybean oil and other vegetable oils have jumped 100-200% in the past year. Hopes to buy much of the feedstock from eastern Washington farmers never blossomed and, instead, the plant is using mostly canola oil from Canada.

And while biodiesel was supposed to help reduce Americans' dependence on foreign oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the domestic market has not materialized as expected. Virtually all of Imperium's product is being shipped to Europe. "We are experiencing challenging times," says John Plaza, Imperium's founder and current CEO. "The entire industry is facing this."

Ever the entrepreneur, Plaza isn't about to give up, Knight Ridder reports. His latest venture, with the help of Boeing, is to develop and manufacture green aviation fuel. A Virgin Atlantic 747 that flew from London to Amsterdam in February was partially powered by a biofuel produced by Imperium. It was the first such flight by a commercial airline. One of the plane's engines was powered by a mixture of kerosene, babassu oil and coconut oil. Babassu oil, from the nuts of the babassu tree in the Amazon, and coconut oil, are often used in cosmetics.

"It's a hot topic out of necessity," says Plaza, adding that the green aviation fuel could be cheaper than the Jet A fuel now used and could reduce jets’ carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. Airplanes could start flying regularly on biofuel within three to five years, and the Grays Harbor plant could be modified to produce it.

Imperium's financial problems are not unique. Because its plant is located on the coast, it has one advantage -- it is easier to ship its products to Europe than if located in the landlocked Midwest. Several biodiesel companies have recently filed for bankruptcy, some plants have suspended operations and construction on other plants has been halted.

"Some of the industry's players are facing rougher times than others," says Amber Thurlo Pearson, a spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board. Theories abound as to why the cost of vegetable oils has soared. Some say farmers aren't planting as many acres of soybeans, switching to corn as demand for ethanol has grown. Of the 450 million to 500 million gallons of biodiesel manufactured in the U.S., about 80% are made from soybean oil.

Hog Market Hurt By High Corn Prices
A combination of high feed costs and low market prices has driven hog producers into the red. Many hog farmers lost close to $30 per head through the winter, but a seasonal rise in prices has brought producers closer to the break-even point, reports the St. Joseph News-Press

The high prices made Dale Akey feel better about bringing a load of hogs to the St. Joseph, MO, stockyards last week. "We just sort of rode the storm out and tried not to sell if we didn't have to. When they get too big, though, you have to sell," says Akey.

Akey raises about 500 hogs on his farm near Cameron, MO. He also grows corn, which softens the financial blow that expensive feed can inflict on produces that don't have access to free grain. "If we didn't have our own corn, it would be really tough," says Akey. "Still, it would make more money if we sold our corn through the market instead of feeding it through hogs."

Small producers generally suffer the most from a rough market. Even large companies like Triumph Foods, which is producer-owned, are not immune to dips in the market. Patt Lilly, Triumph chief administrative officer, says the effects low hog prices have on both the production and processing ends of the pork industry.

Most of the company's producers are large and financially stable, says Lilly, but smaller farms sell to Triumph as well. If hog prices remain too low for too long, some of the smaller producers may face financial trouble or even go out of business. "We have a certain fixed cost as a company from maintenance, wages and so on," says Lilly. "It's all a matter of throughput. We have to find somewhere to get the 18,000 to 19,000 hogs per day that we run through our facility."

Meanwhile, the same low hog prices that stress Triumph's producers give the company a better profit margin on the retail product it markets through Seaboard Foods. Prices have taken a larger-than-expected leap this spring, narrowing profit margins for packers while helping out producers. Hogs that averaged $35/cwt. in mid-March now sell for around $58.

The weekly hog report from University of Missouri economists Ron Plain and Glen Grimes attributed the prices to a strong export market. China is buying an especially large share of American pork, but the export market is strong enough that it would show a 17% increase so far in 2008 even if all sales to China and Hong Kong were excluded, the report says.

Local producers like Akey don't ask too many questions about the increasing prices. If the market puts hog farmers back in the black, they'll take the price. "We've made money on hogs and they have been good to us," says Akey. "We'll probably continue to raise hogs as long as we're on the farm."

Ukraine Cancels Grain Export Quotas
Soyatech reports that Ukraine has canceled export quotas of wheat and other grains, the country's Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk announced on Wednesday.
 Pynzenyk says that Ukraine does not need to restrict grain exports for 2008 or for coming years.

On April 23, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko indicated that her government was ready to lift all restrictions on grain exports, but the government has since put off the move until July 1 amid fears of higher domestic prices. The World Bank has repeatedly called on Ukraine to lift the restrictions.

Ukraine has some of Europe's richest land and is one of the world's largest grain exporters. Tymoshenko predicted the country's grain yield will reach 40 million metric tons (mmt) in 2008. Last year, Ukraine produced 29.3 mmt of grain, including corn.

ARS Finds New Way To Obtain Corn Rootworm Genetic Markers
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have led the way in finding a new technique to obtain genetic markers to sort out corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera) populations. This method is faster and cheaper than existing techniques, and it can be used to characterize genetic variation in any animal species.


Entomologists Tom Sappington and Kyung Seok Kim work at the ARS Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit in Ames, IA. For this research, they partnered with ARS-North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory entomologist B. Wade French in Brookings, SD, and University of Illinois colleagues Susan Ratcliffe and Lei Liu.

Researchers often use sections of DNA called short sequence repeats (SSRs) to study the interactions between different populations of the same species. Although they are superior genetic markers, SSRs are typically identified by random, expensive and time-consuming searches through the total DNA extracted from an individual organism.

However, SSRs are also found in sections of DNA called expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Species-specific EST databases support genetic studies, including the identification of SSRs, in a range of plants and animals. The ARS team set out to resolve whether they could use SSRs obtained from existing corn rootworm EST databases, not SSRs identified from individual DNA, to study the genetic relationships of rootworm populations.

The researchers developed two sets of SSRs. One set contained 17 SSRs developed using DNA from individual corn rootworms. The other set of 17 SSRs was created from an existing database of 6,397 corn rootworm ESTs. The scientists pitted the two sets in a head-to-head competition characterizing five western corn rootworm populations from around the U.S. and a Mexican corn rootworm population from Texas. They found that both sets could be used to assign individuals to the correct populations with up to 80% accuracy.

These findings suggest that researchers studying population genetics can save time and money by using ESTs in existing databases to identify SSRs, instead of developing new SSRs from scratch.


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New Agribusiness Job Web Site
Penton Media’s Ag Group, of which Corn & Soybean Digest is a member, has launched a new targeted online career center. Agribizjobs.com – www.agribizjobs.com/home offers industry employers a growing, qualified audience of ag professionals and industry jobseekers with agribusiness-specific, categorized job listings. It’s a joint effort by Corn & Soybean Digest and its sister publications, BEEF, Farm Industry News, Farm Press, Hay and Forage Grower and National Hog Farmer.

At www.agribizjobs.com/home employers can view complete but anonymous resumes for free, and pay only to connect with a job-seeker. Job-seekers can post resumes in ag-specific employment categories and sign up to receive e-mail alerts when new positions are posted that match their search criteria. The site’s Anonymous Resume Bank enables both active and passive jobseekers to list their experience and qualifications in a protected environment, allowing them to stay connected to the employment market while maintaining full control of their confidential information.


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Updated Marketing, Farm Bill, Biofuels And Other News At Corn & Soybean Digest Web Site
Follow the latest analysis of corn and soybean futures prices and market trends at cornandsoybeandigest.com/ our flagship Web site. There’s information on the farm bill, market commentary and lots of other news you can use to better manage your farm.

If your latest issue of Corn & Soybean Digest magazine isn’t handy, you can access it and past issues to revisit subjects that can impact your corn and soybean production and marketing. The site's news from across the Corn Belt, other corn- and soybean-production areas and the worldwide markets for corn and beans can help you stay on top of events that can help or hurt prices.

Go to cornandsoybeandigest.com/ now and stay up-to-the-minute on the timeliest analysis and other information on corn and soybean production and prices.


Subscribe To These Other E-Newsletters from Corn & Soybean Digest
There are several other e-newsletters from Corn & Soybean Digest. They include F.I.R.S.T. Harvest Reports (seasonal), Corn E-Digest, Soybean E-Digest and Crop News Weekly. Check them out at subscribe.cornandsoybeandigest.com/subscribe.cfm?tc=NLSUB.

Thanks for taking time to review this MarketMaxx newsletter. If you have comments or questions about MarketMaxx, e-mail your editor, Larry Stalcup, at beef2lar@suddenlink.net.




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