Marketing

Grain Outlook Corn market watching Russia

Editor’s Note: Joe Lardy, CHS Hedging research analyst, is sitting in this week for Phyllis Nystrom, the regular “Grain Outlook” columnist.

The following marketing analysis is for the week ending Jan. 28.

Corn — It was a volatile week in the corn market, although a positive one. March corn closed at $6.36.25, up 20 cents on the week. March corn is very close to the contract high of $6.40.5.

On an interesting technical note, Jan. 25’s price action formed a perfect gravestone doji. This is a bearish pattern that suggests a reversal followed by a downtrend in prices. These are usually pretty strong patterns, but the market steamrolled this — going above Jan. 25’s high. Trading volumes have been very good the entire month of January, but Jan. 25’s activity was almost twice as much as we’ve been seeing on a daily basis.

The corn market started out the week with some outstanding inspection numbers. This was a marketing year high at over 56.5 million bushels. Inspections have been consistently running above the five-year average.

JOE LARDY

CHS Hedging inC. St. Paul

Cash Grain Markets

corn/change* soybeans/change*

Stewartville $5.97 +.22 $14.79 +1.52 Edgerton $6.20 +.32 $14.54 +1.53 Jackson $6.21 +.27 $14.21 +1.24 Hope $6.05 +.32 $14.60 +1.72 Cannon Falls $6.08 +.30 $14.98 +1.60 Sleepy Eye $6.20 +.31 $14.63 +1.48 Average: $6.12 $12.63 Year Ago Average: $5.04 $12.92

Grain prices are effective cash close on Feb. 1. *Cash grain price change represents a two-week period.

Ethanol production dropped off and still in line with pre-Covid levels. Jan. 24 also brought us a flash sales announcement of 150,000 tons of corn to unknown. This week’s export sales were very solid at just over 55 million bushels. This is the third-best total of the marketing year.

The tensions between Russia and Ukraine has also been a supportive factor for the corn market. The Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest corn exporter, so a military conflict could have serious implications on the world corn trade. The market is making sure there is enough risk premium for that.

IHS Markit updated their planting estimates. They have corn acreage at 91.489 million which is down 89,000 acres from last month.

Outlook: The Russia/Ukraine tension will continue to provide direction to the market. The stock market has also been very volatile and if we continue to see inflationary talks, money could very well continue to flow in the commodity space.

SOYBEANS — March soybeans had a very solid week rising 56 cents to close at $14.70. This is a new contract high, and the current price level is well above all of the moving averages.

Soybean inspections were ok at 58.5 million bushels. This total is just a little bit above the five-year average, but well below last year. China continues to be the main destination. There were flash sale announcements on Jan. 24 and Jan. 28. The Jan. 28 sales were large and not picked up in this week’s export sales data. Speaking of that, this week’s sales total was the very good with the best total of the past six weeks. China accounted for half of the old crop sales total.

The soybean market has been supported by production losses in South America. Rains in the driest areas of Argentina have materialized and there is more rain in the forecast. Brazil is also picking up precipitation, but there is now a growing concern about too much rain during harvest. Many analysts are also believing the production losses are built in and non-reversible and have the Brazilian crop moving towards 130 million tons. I don’t believe it’s that low, and also think these rains can claw back a small amount of production increases.

IHS Markit updated their planting estimates. They have soybean acreage at 87.805 million which is down 1 million acres from last month.

Outlook: Getting a good read on the South American weather situation is going to be a critical price driver. As harvest picks up, yield reports will be closely watched. There was also some unplanned downtime at two large crush facilities; so let’s see if they get back up and running next week in a timely fashion. v

Information in the above columns is the writer’s opinion. It is no way guaranteed and should not be interpreted as buy/sell advice. Futures trading always involves a certain degree of risk.

University of Minnesota video details butchering process

SWINE & U, from pg. 15

Proper labeling and storage of the meat product is important. Prepare to have adequate space to store the meat product at a safe temperature.

The health condition of the individuals doing the butchering is important to food safety too. A person coughing and sneezing while butchering could result in microbiological contamination of food, food packaging materials, and food contact surfaces.

Exclusion of pests from the food. If butchering outdoors, pests such as flies, ants or birds can spread bacteria and other contaminants to the meat.

Proper handling of the pig

The condition in which a pig is handled prior to butchering impacts its well-being. In addition, research has shown that poor or improper handling can cause adverse effects on the quality of the pork from that pig. A stressed and agitated pig will also be much more difficult to handle. When handling a pig, it is recommended to have sorting panels or solid plywood to help guide the pig in the direction you want it to go.

The sorting board can be used to restrain a pig’s movement, for example, to restrain the pig along a gate or side of a pen for stunning. When doing this, it is important to use sturdy gating and ensure that the pig has good footing to minimize chance of the pig slipping. If a firearm is used to stun the pig, plan and think about human safety in terms of the surrounding area and flooring the pig is on to minimize the chance of the bullet ricocheting off objects if the pig is missed or the bullet goes through the pig.

Although this article has covered many details of human safety, pig welfare and food safety, the video, “How to butcher a pig for home use,” created by the University of Minnesota Extension Swine Team, explains these points and more. It also shows the butchering process from bleed-out through the cutting of the carcass into primal cuts.

Check it out if you plan to butcher a pig (https://z. umn.edu/HowToButcherPigVideo).

Sarah Schieck Boelke is a University of Minnesota Extension Educator based in the U of M Extension office in Willmar, Minn. Sarah can be reached by telephone at (320) 235-0726 ext. 2004, or by email at schi0466@umn.edu. v

By JORDAN SMITH “Farmers are taking more out of the soil Mankato Free Press than they’re putting back in,” she said.

When Katy Wortel thinks about her “And some of them, I think, probably decades of environmental activism, which understand that even,” she added. “It’s just include six years as a Blue Earth County that they’re caught in this system. And so commissioner, she initially seems preoccu- then it’s back to: How can we change the pied with regrets. She knows many people whole system and get farmers uncaught in came to dislike her. it? And that’s where we maybe could have

Wortel was shocked to win the county worked together and not had the butting of board’s District 3 seat in 2002. She ran as an heads so much.” ardent environmentalist who made a modest Wortel won reelection to the county board living farming pumpkins and gourds on Pohl in 2004 and served until 2008, when conserRoad, where she and her husband own 12 vative businessman Mark Piepho unseated acres and have lived in a brown brick colo- her with a better-funded campaign. nial home for about 40 years. After decades of striving to uproot or

The county board was neglecting negative reform flawed systems, Wortel understands outcomes of agricultural land use to soil, the plight of younger activists who protest water and air quality, she felt. She saw a lack the robust fossil fuel industry. That detriof commitment to being responsible stew- mental, human-caused climate change is ards of nature. now a widely accepted reality is evidence of

“I had some notoriety, good and bad, so I their progress, she thinks. ran and I surprised myself and everyone else Unless they’re an “expert in human psyin town that I won,” she said. “It was the chology,” she said half-jokingly, any advocate most surprise election, I think, that we’ve may have to live with the contempt of those ever had in this area.” who resist change.

Since she was in elementary school, Wortel, Wortel only now sees why the disparity now 72, has been argumentative. An inde- between her own righteous cause and that of pendent spirit led her to frequent spats with her environmental advocacy groups such as Mankato farmers — feeding their own and many other famiparents. Fueled by her autonomy, she didn’t fear Area Environmentalists and the Southcentral lies — ended in discord. Differing root motivations unpopular stances. Minnesota Clean Energy Council, for which she is led to hostile disagreements.

Fittingly, she was alone in her first instance of vol- now a representative. Making a difference, she has learned, seems ineviunteering to better the environment. Wortel carried strong convictions into her tenure as tably to lead to making enemies. Before households had recycling bins, she said, people would bring glass, metal and plastic to the Hy-Vee store in downtown Mankato. A frequent recya county commissioner, often struggling to make compromises that conflicted with her values, she said. “Sometimes when you’re working for change it doesn’t matter how good you are,” Wortel said. “A change-maker is always given a rough time, really.” cler herself, Wortel noticed how cluttered the public bin became. She decided one day to clean it up, sort items into their proper categories and remove any garbage. Her “I like to argue and take the sometimes unpopular position, which may, by the way, have been the right position,” she said. “But I never was a person of much finesse.” She sees room, however, for respect and empathy for one’s ideological opponents. In her case she said it should have entailed more acknowledgment of farmers’ stress about how to earn money. effort lasted a few years until the increased volume of recyclables made the work overly tedious. Her public activism began in the 1980s when the company operating the local Wilmarth coal power plant proposed that it be converted to a waste-burnHer independent mindset prevented some accomplishments that might have been viewed as “baby steps” toward substantive change, she said. But it also motivated her to keep pursuing larger goals. The conflict she regrets most from her term is backAs she recedes into retirement and works with a lower profile on environmental causes, Wortel sees that on the whole she made positive change. And she hasn’t lost faith in the power of small gesing facility serving the Twin Cities. lash against her aims to move the area toward more See WORTEL, pg. 18 She formed a coalition of concerned citizens who opposed it, arguing that the cities needed to do more to reduce and reuse waste before the Mankato plant agreed to burn it and risk pollution. sustainable farming practices. Wortel is blunt: “I did a really poor job at that. I was a little farmer, and the big farmers don’t really look at a little farmer as a farmer.” Find the right senior The effort didn’t stop the conversion. To this day the Wilmarth plant, now operated by Xcel Energy, burns waste at temperatures which the county says are high enough to destroy or remove nearly all polFor that reason she doubts whether she was the right person to forge ahead against predominantly male farmers who abide by what she calls an “entrenched” agricultural system. living option with our personalized process Our service is free, as we’re paid by our participating communities and lutants while producing electricity. Despite the outcome, Wortel was emboldened. She came to serve on a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency task force monitoring garbage incinerators. But the facts of the system, she says, remain grim. A trend toward large-scale monocropping of corn and soybeans has depleted soil health and eroded the market for smaller properties that seek to rotate crops and encourage plant diversity, Wortel said. providers. 1-877-580-3710

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s she founded

Photo by Pat Christman Katy Wortel, an area environmentalist who from 2003 to 2008 served as a Blue Earth County commissioner, fills a feeder with bird seed at her Pohl Road property.

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U.S. exports hampered by supply chain issues

MIELKE, from pg. 14

annual Dairy Forum. One of the highlights was an announcement by IDFA, the Port of Los Angeles, and CMA CGM (a world leader in shipping and logistics) of the formation of a “Dairy Exports Working Group aimed at identifying and addressing supply chain issues hampering U.S. dairy product exports.”

A joint press release stated, “The group will focus on seaports on the west coast of the United States, where a majority of dairy products begin their export journey, as well as opportunities to streamline the movement of products from the interior of the United States to the west coast.”

“It will also examine several ocean shipping and rail challenges and solutions,” according to the press release, “including exploring ways to aggregate and streamline U.S. dairy exports from multiple suppliers to ensure more consolidated and attractive bookings; working to increase rail availability in the interior of the United States to reach non-coastal exporters; determining viability of implementing a ‘fast lane’ concept for vessels agreeing to depart full or with fewer empty cargo containers; defining agreed terms for exporters using empty containers currently languishing at U.S. ports; and establishing guarantees to fix and surpass ghost bookings.”

IDFA’s Michael Dykes said, “U.S. dairy exports reached a near-record $6.4 billion in 2020 and continued to set a blazing pace in 2021 due to surging global demand, but the United States could be exporting much more to destinations around the world if there was more reliability and predictability in the supply chain.”

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka stated, “American dairy exporters have been hard hit by supply chain challenges and trade policy that have made it difficult to get their goods to global markets. I’m pleased to collaborate with our dairy industry partners and the CMA CGM Group to launch this working group and find solutions that will benefit not only the dairy industry, but all American exporters.”

Lee Mielke is a syndicated columnist who resides in Everson, Wash. His weekly column is featured in newspapers across the country and he may be reached at lkmielke@juno.com. v

Wortel’s efforts may be too late

WORTEL, from pg. 17

tures that may improve the environment and bring more people to the work.

Her pandemic project was to clear common buckthorn, an invasive species, from the tract of woods behind her home. In her side yard she is growing a garden for pollinators and a swath of prairie plants. With the new year she hopes to create a pond in the place of her former pumpkin patch to reduce the surrounding area’s water runoff into the Minnesota River.

She avidly composts her food waste. She bought an electric car, a Nissan Leaf. She continues to reduce waste and recycle; on a walk around her property, she stopped several times to pick up plastic bags strewn about by a previous day’s strong winds.

Perhaps as important as fighting the well-funded forces that drive climate change, she knows, is combating the hopelessness induced by a realization that it’s likely too late to avoid serious consequences.

Her advice is to take the next step, the one you know to be moral, even when future measures are unclear.

Of the planet’s irreversible warming, she concedes, “We’re all gonna maybe have broken spirits for a while. But we need to heal and keep going.”

“It’s not time to give up yet,” she added with a forced cheer. She paused. “If ever.”

The Free Press and The Land are sister publications owned by The Free Press Media. v