Friday, March 5, 6:45 a.m. – Yesterday was a mostly positive day for our markets.  Harvest 2021 corn closed up 2, harvest 2021 soybeans closed up 6 1/2, harvest 2021 spring wheat closed up 1/2 and harvest 2021 winter wheat closed down 5 1/2.  In the overnight trade corn and soybeans are positive, spring wheat is negative and winter wheat is on both sides of the ledger.  Oil closed up $2.55 yesterday at $63.83 per barrel.  It is stronger again this morning with it currently valued at $65.36 per barrel.  Our dollar had a high yesterday morning before lunch of $0.795 US and has trended down since that time.  This morning it is currently valued at $0.787 US.  
 
Oil prices have jumped the last couple of days with the OPEC + meeting surprising the marketplace by stating that they will continue to limit production.  There was much speculation that countries such as Russia and Iran wanted to greatly increase production.  They are also talking about more enforcement measures of the current production limits for the different member states.  Unfortunately these higher prices will result in higher input costs for all our farmers this spring. 
 
Yesterday the weekly export numbers were released in the US.  Corn sales for the previous week were a new marketing year low.  Wheat sales were also considered very low with soybean sales not much better.  The only real good news was that corn shipments are at a strong pace which is an indication that most current contracts are being honoured. 
 
We have been talking this week about some potential weakness in the soybean meal market.  Today let’s point out that soybean oil prices closed the highest in 8 1/2 years yesterday.  The vegetable oil market remains on fire and this is helping soybean oil demand and prices which in turn supports soybean demand and prices. 
 
Ethanol production jumped back up by 22.5% last week after being drastically cut the week of the big cold snap across the US.  Demand was also up to a two month high which resulted in ethanol stocks decreasing by 1.6% down to 942 million gallons.  This is good news for the corn market however we should still point out that corn usage remains about 10% lower than the high for the last year.  
 
Friday’s thought:  Our days are happier when we give people a bit of our heart rather than a piece of our mind!

Please call Geoffrey Guy at 613-880-2707 or Bob Orr at 613-720-1271 or Delores Foster at 613-880-7458 if you would like prices for crop you have stored on your farm.  Prices quoted herein are for product at our elevator.