GRAIN RECAPS
Ready for harvest
Preparation key to efficient grain handling
i
milo to corn and/or cotton.
By Lindsey Bowers
t looks like once again this year, a
timely rain gave our crops the hope
we needed. Most of the corn and
milo is drying down. Harvest is truly right
around the corner. The grain department
is in full swing making preparations for a
proficient harvest. We would like to thank
those of you who returned the planted acres
survey. The information from these surveys
will be used to prepare delivery sheets to
ensure your grain is being correctly and
quickly identified at the elevator. The surveys
are also used to make logistical decisions at
harvest to guarantee we maintain adequate
space for the anticipated acres left to harvest.
This year’s surveys estimate that we will see
58 percent corn, 32 percent milo, and 10
percent soybeans in our growing area. The
soybean acres are up from previous years
and we continue to see a gradual shift from
The surveys are also used to indicate the
size of the marketing pool. At a 90 bushel
average, we believe the pool is currently 75
percent hedged with futures at a minimum
price of $4.53 per bushel. Of this coverage, 50
percent is with strictly short futures and 25
percent is with puts. The puts allow us to capture any ups in the market. At this time, there
are no sales recorded for the marketing pool.
We are continuing to make improvements
to the software and are currently operating in
what is considered “live” mode for all four elevators. This means once a truck has weighed
out, the ticket is available for immediate
viewing at our offices. We are currently in the
process of getting “live” load summary sheets
available for you to view online and plan on
this being completed before harvest. We have
had many customers take advantage of setting
up their accounts to receive scale tickets and
contracts by email. Please feel free to contact
us if you are interested in this service.
Customers who have previously used our
dispatch service should have heard from us.
We plan on uploading maps to correspond
with your delivery sheets. Therefore, during harvest once you tell dispatch the farm
number, the map will generate for that specific
farm number. We are hoping that this creates
efficiency with our dispatching process that
flows through to the scale at the elevator. If you
haven’t heard from us and plan to use our dispatch office, please contact Stacy in Danevang.
CHARTS GRAIN
Keeping
track of
markets
As harvest nears, it is even more critical to
implement your marketing plan. We have many
producers who have started contracting and
managing price risk in several different ways.
The coop offers all of the basic contracts, including the ability to participate in options. Please
visit with Haley or Lindsey about developing a
marketing plan that fits your operation.
USDA estimates not always reliable prediction
Courtesy of Advance Trading
s
orghum acreage nationwide was increased
790,000 acres since the
March 31 Planting intentions
report to 7.47 million acres, an
increase of 12 percent. Net from
last year, milo acreage nationwide
is down 590,000 acres, but many
feel USDA is low on its number.
Much of the increase in acres
came from areas of the Western
HRW belt where drought out
wheat received late rains and
were planted into milo. Western
Texas, Ks and Ok have all seen an
increase in milo acreage replacing the abandoned/drought out
wheat acreage. Texas milo acres
8
are actually projected to be unchanged from last year at 3 million acres. Many in the trade feel
even this increase in acreage is
still understated and we will see
some relevant increases in coming reports. See chart at right.
USDA also reduced the abandonment and therefore raised the
harvested acreage on milo for this
year resulting in a huge increase
in production. Based off of a 67
bpa trend line yield, and using a
14.4 percent abandonment rate
or reduction in harvested versus
planted acreage, net increase in
production for US milo came out
to over 45 million bushels, more
than twice the current projected
carryout for the 2013/14 crop
year. Based on USDA trend line
yields and current USDA usage
estimates, carryout for new crop
milo could reach a staggering 93
mbu w