At a Glance
- Corn down 1-2 cents
- Soybeans down 3-6 cents; Soyoil down $0.50/lb; Soymeal up $1.40/ton
- Chicago SRW wheat down 7-8 cents; Kansas City HRW wheat down 11-12 cents; Minneapolis spring wheat down 7-8 cents
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Prices updated as of 6:55am CDT.
Good morning, Dallas!
The Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars in overtime last night, so our household has been celebrating in the early morning hours (we go to bed too early to watch an 8pm Mountain time game)!
Policy editor Joshua Baethge is joining us this morning to share his thoughts on the game:
I was already celebrating when the Stars went into the first intermission up 3-0. It was one of the best 20 minutes I’ve ever seen them play.
To put 3-0 into perspective for non-hockey fans, that’s like a four-touchdown lead going into halftime. The game technically isn’t over, but it probably is. I thought I might even get to bed at a decent time. Instead, I stayed up to witness a choke job for the ages.
Maybe the Avs are a little good too.
As you may have seen yesterday, my colleague Jacquie can talk a good game. However, as any expert grain market analyst knows, it takes more than one minor event to change a long-term trend. The Stars remain the best team in the Western Conference.
Speaking of trends, Dallas also spotted Vegas two games in the last round before storming back to take the series. It’s all part of our plan. I think.
Thursday’s game can’t come soon enough!
Planting updates
My family’s farm in Northwestern Illinois was able to seed oats and alfalfa last week. And forget about the silage corn we need for our dairy cows – the sweet corn patch was the first field to be checked off the list for corn planting! My dad and the grandkids are all thrilled because harvesting the sweet corn patch is everyone’s favorite summer activity (well, mostly everyone)!
My brothers and Mom – less impressed. But my brothers, brother-in-law, and dad have been working around the clock to keep that planter rolling in between rain showers and milkings. I missed Dad’s call last night to hear yesterday’s updates (though I did get text messages about Chris’s Denver Nuggets’ lackluster playoff performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves), but through Sunday evening it sounded like they were a third of the way done.
How is planting going on your farm? Share your insights with us in our ongoing Feedback from the Field survey!
Feedback from the Field is an open-sourced, ongoing farmer survey of current crop and weather conditions across the Heartland. If you would like to participate at any time throughout the growing season, click this link to take the survey and share updates about your farm’s spring progress. I review and upload results daily to the FFTF Google™ MyMap, so farmers can see others’ responses from across the country – or even across the county!
Corn
After a couple days of weather-fueled rallies in the ag markets, we are back to boring market updates this morning. Ag markets continue to await Friday’s WASDE reports from USDA, which should provide a revival in new crop price activity following its release.
In the meantime, corn futures are trading $0.01-$0.02/bushel lower this morning. Jul24 futures have dipped to $4.65/bushel while new crop Dec24 futures are trading at $4.865/bushel at last glance.
“Corn is again following moves in wheat, as has been happening recently," StoneX commodity risk manager Matt Ammermann told Reuters. "Corn is also seeing some downward pressure on expectations that the rate of U.S. plantings will accelerate.”
Good planting weather is forecasted for the Heartland this weekend, which should help farmers surge closer to that critical completion mark ahead of mid-May, when analysts begin to really worry about the optimal yield window for corn planting.
Soybeans
Soybean futures drifted $0.03-$0.06/bushel lower this morning, sending most actively traded Jul24 contracts to $12.4275/bushel and new crop Nov24 futures to $12.22/bushel during the overnight trading session.
“Soybeans are also seeing selling pressure after their strong rises. China also seems to be concentrating its purchases on Brazilian supplies, with the flood problem likely to be a temporary issue. There is talk China has bought around 22 shipments of Brazilian soybeans for May/June shipment, depressing demand for U.S. beans,” Ammermann told Reuters.