North Central Iowa Crop Tour

[rswfarms]

I spent yesterday looking at my farmland in Northern Iowa. I have never seen that amount of farms that are unplanted and there is alot of standing water in many of the fields. The corn that did get planted is only 2 inches tall and the stand count isn't even close to a normal 33,500 to 36,500 range.Total corn production in my part of Iowa will be way, way, down from even our drought reduced production in 2012. I would say this year is much worse than even the flood year of 1993.

[rswfarms]

I should add that we have alot of corn end-users in Northern Iowa with all the Ethanol Plants, feed mills, all the hog guys, and local elevators.These end users are going to need to import a vast amount of corn into the area to keep running. It will be interesting to see how they handle this, what is becoming a vast shortage of cash corn in Northern Iowa for the 2013 corn market.

[rightone]

some users will shut down, others will import grain ( SA ).

 2014 will be worse if the current crop does not amount to much.

[rswfarms]

Yes, I would not be suprised to see some end users shut-down this crop year.

[JCCWIS]

Trucks and/or rail move corn every day from locations that have it too places that don't !!

[rswfarms]

Yes, your right on corn getting shipped around the country. Not sure on the per bushel shipping cost to bring alot of corn into Northern Iowa. Guess the end-users will find out.

[rayjenkins]

you should be thrilled.....the corn you are going to grow this year is going to be sold at a stronger basis due to lower supplies in your area...

[rswfarms]

Yes Ray, your right. Guess what the basis level for July/2013 corn is at a local Ethanol Plant today? $1.50 over Chicago currently. Believe that is an all-time High Basis Level for my part of Northern Iowa. Rumor has it will go to $2 over Chicago in the next 2-3 weeks. That's one helluva Basis Level, Plus, there is very little corn in our Tin Cans for most of the guys in my area. Almost everyone is sold out.

[rayjenkins]

So what is the plan for August and September at Golden Grain??

Can they handle rail corn??

[rswfarms]

Ray- I believe they are on a rail line, so that may help. I assume that since they are making an ok per ethanol gallon profit, they will do anything to get corn this summer. Since the DDG (Dried Distilers Grain) makes up a good part of there ethanol profit per gallon and DDG Prices have been good, I think they will do anything not to have to shut-down due to lack of corn. I know for a fact that they have all there land, equipment, and buildings paid for,so there Fixed Costs per ethanol gallon is very low. This makes a huge difference since the Fixed Cost per ethanol gallon can be as high as 50 cents per gallon.