I have a lot of respect for farmers (my dad was a dairy farmer in his younger years). Glad to see they are finally getting better prices for their products. Not sure how long it will last as their costs to produce will be rising considerably.
Do Farmers spend more on equipment like tractors and combines or on things like seed and fertilizer? Or irrigation equipment? And have the companies that sell these products been aggressive and successful in raising prices?
A friend of mine who grows corn & beans says the price of fertilizer has gone up quite a bit but has not shared any figures with me. He had record yields this year; not too often you get the combination of record yield and high prices. Another friend of mine who farms about an hour north of him did not fare so well and still has corn in the field and lousy yield at that, too wet. Every year when a farmer puts seed in the ground it is a big gamble: too much rain, not enough rain, wind, hail, frost. I am not a farmer myself.
sold more Jan08 S at 1060 Still holding W short Almost sold more Dec07 C at 390. Will roll to Mar08 this week or next week.
Any thoughts on how the Bird Flu outbreak might affect grain prices? http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqtKbIkzvlW4&refer=home Interesting today that oil was down yet beans were up. Many times they move together. I am not currently trading the grains but keep an eye on them. It seems many times fundamentals do not work and many times technicals do not work. Yet they do have nice trends. But they make it very hard to hold a position. Lots of factors but overall supply and demand are probably the biggest drivers. Tight supply drove corn prices higher last year and tight supply is driving bean prices higher this year. Yet wheat stocks are low and prices have fallen considerably from the earlier highs.