Markets--Wow

Looking through my file cabinet and found some old papers. I used to write what the corn-bean price was every week night. The Chicago price-then local ethanol plant-then local coop. It looks like Aug. 21 of 2012 was the time to sell. Corn-$8.31--Beans-$17.53.... Markets were really jumpy! It is hard to believe my coop was higher than the Chicago bid. Now there is a dollar basis on beans. Things have changed!!! There is 2 months on each sheet and I see there are 51 sheets. Try not to cry.---Tee

I did the RAGBRAI ride across Iowa in 2014. From Rock Valley to Guttenberg basically doing the northern quarter of Iowa. Saw LOTS of new steel throughout the countryside that those prices paid for.

Let me guess! Penmanship was never one of yer better grades in school??? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Rick

I can remember Aug of 12 real good. I took off work to leave for the Caribbean that afternoon. My girlfriend at the time and I got up early and hauled a semi load of beans to the mill. They were paying 17.75 that day!

Here in northwest Iowa we have the widest basis in the country because of distance from the Mississippi , the gulf and the west coast so our basis was always wider than anyone else. The basis has narrowed some because of ethanol and feed demand but we are still farthest away from the export markets. The best price I received for corn was $7.64 at the local chicken farm. That corn came from a field two miles away from the chicken farm so the trucking bill was low and the chicken farm was offering free price later storage at that time. That's a deal that is hard to beat, truck it two miles and have free storage. I could have had five cents more from the ethanol plant but the ethanol plant is a little farther away, involves more stop signs and turns and usually means a long wait in line. The scene has changed drastically from the days of hauling to town with a Deere A pulling 300 bushels hauling away from a Deere 45 combine. Back then the only grain market in this area was the closest elevator. We were forced to receive whatever price the elevator chose to post. Today with better roads, semis, ethanol and feed mills competing for the same grain we have more choices for markets. Today I get occasional calls from a couple feed mills with a good bid above the ethanol plant bid. They usually call when they think grain will keep going up and they want to get some low priced grain locked in. We never used to get calls begging for our grain like we do today.

Rick--You got that right! Sometimes I get in a hurry and I can't read my own writing! An thank God for spellcheck! I should of stayed awake in kindergarten---Tee

I have a modest new machine shed and lots of tile from those couple years.

Did anyone keep a chart of how rent, land prices, fertilizer, seed, and iron prices also went up and have stayed up since then?

Uffda.

Paul

2012 was the year of severe drought. People seem to forget that, lack of water and lack of thinking of the future prices of next years bumper crops and low prices.