Ontario Wheat Market Commentary

[dalek]

Thought some of you might want to take a look, if anybody's interested I'll try to remember to post them as they come in in the future.



Ontario Wheat Market Commentary for January 4, 2007
By Todd Austin, Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board


WHEAT – March wheat at the Chicago Board of Trade settled
at $9.45 US on Thursday, January 3, 2008, up 30 cents for
the day, and up 60 cents for the week. March Kansas City
wheat settled at $9.65 ½ US, up 29 ½ cents for the day and
up 51 ½ cents for the week. March Minneapolis wheat settled
at $10.95 ¾ US, up 30 cents for the day and up 65 ¾ cents
for the week. March corn settled at $4.66 US at the CBOT,
up 14 cents for the week, and January soybeans closed
at $12.51 ½ US, up 43 ¾ cents for the week.

Argentina has again extended the closure of its wheat export
registry to ensure domestic supplies after frosts damaged the
crop last month, even though the government has said it does
not expect output to fall. The current forecast for the
2007/08 wheat harvest is 15.4 million tonnes; high yields
in some areas are expected to make up for frost-related
damage. The export registry was due to re-open last week,
but the government extended the closure indefinitely. Last
year, Argentina exported 10.5 million tonnes of wheat from
a harvest of 15.2 million tonnes, according to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.

China has recently announced that there will be a temporary
quota on wheat exports from that country to help ensure
adequate domestic supply and to help stabilize domestic food
prices. Other grains and grain products are likewise affected.
China has also introduced an export tax on wheat, corn, rice,
soybeans, and various processed grains, just a short time
after they had scrapped tax rebates for grain exports. The
export tax rates are expected to range between 5 to 25 per cent.

India has lifted its import duty on wheat flour in order to
facilitate imports into thier country; this comes on the heels
of scrapped wheat tender last month, when India had withdrawn
its tender of at least 350,000 metric tonnes, due to high
international prices. The government may continue its wheat
import program in small quantities to boost buffer stocks.
India's wheat production in the crop marketing year that
starts April is expected to top 75 million metric tonnes,
up from 74.89 million last year, according to the government.
However, some experts believe that dry weather could reduce
expected yields.

New crop, Harvest 2008 Contract Prices for
January 3, 2008 at the close are as follows:
SWW at $242.73 per tonne ($6.61 /bu.),
SRW at $240.91 per tonne ($6.56 /bu.),
HRW at $244.55 per tonne ($6.66 /bu.),
and HRS at $303.05 per tonne ($8.25 /bu.)

[Hopperbin]

Shouldn't someone be working on the Canola tariff into China? Don't remember hearing that that got scrapped yet.

[cris]

we used rings for a while, but found if you got rain, the water sat on the edge of the tarp eventually got int the ring and had spoilage. We quit using rings and just piled it and used a blade on a tractor with a 2½" hose screwed on the bottom to keep from digging dirt. Worked O.K.
Bought a grain bagger this year and it works very well. We split an extractor with a neighbor and it works just as well. I always hated shoveling snow off the pile.

[Hopperbin]

Tarps are getting more expensive and they seem to get damaged a little every year, birds, deer, wind, etc. don't really want to figure or say what I think I spend on the damn things. But I have reallized that putting a plastic tarp under then is money well spent, especially here.
Last couple year 6 inchers and this year just plain wet ground moisture coming back up out of the ground. Last year, bugs. Did I mention I am dreaming about hopper bins, I am hoping next year I can fix that problem, but you know how it goes, we farmer always think of next year.

[Hopperbin]

Did you get to use the extractor yet? How does it work when you have snow drifts over the bag, is that much of a problem?

[cris]

I cleaned up 10 bags and we had fairly heavy snow around them, not much on them although. Some places no snow on the very top of the bag and some places a couple inches. most all the bags had snow chest deep up the sides. we pushed the snow away and as the snow piled up a bit along the edge of the blade it would drag the snow down off the sides of the bag. I nipped one bag with an axle stub, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I had expected. overall it is easy to bag, easy to unload and reasonably fast. One man can load his own truck but it is busy.

[cris]

Just as a side note: I would rather fill bags than small hoppers. The bag can be filled right in the field with the cart. The combines never wait when we are bagging. Nothing better than trying to change bins at midnight every second load putting a 13" spout in a 15" hole!!!

[Muttley]

Check out a good larger grain vac. Not only for piles but also for those bags. You of course can then use it for your other bins. You will find if you have spoiled grain a grain vac can clean up around the spoilage much better than a auger. Check the new Ultima 6 Conveyair grain vacs out in Brandon next week at the trade show.

P.S.- Sounds like a advertisement doesn't it. I sell and repair grain vacs for a living!!

[Hopperbin]

The bag system has some good points.
My fields are scattered about so that would require moving more machinery from field to field. But I suppose one could run the grain cart a couple miles and make it back.
I used the grain vac, I have the Kongskilde, for the last few inches on this last bin ring. Seemed to work a little easier, never touched the shovel. Actually saved the plastic by not cleaning up with the bin sweep and was much easier on the sweep also so maybe I can make it last longer.
I heard of someone using a snow blower with the sweep, that would be dusty and must protect the snow blower engine from dust, they do not use filters. I have thinking that one could modify the snow blower to auger out the side, I think that would make things much easier yet.
Ultra Cart builds a stand on driver that one can use on a grain vac. Wondering weather that machine could be adapted to push grain into the sweep.
Oh and I also need to work alone as I have no help filling or cleaning up.