Soybeans Lead Corn, Wheat Futures Prices Up.

Oct 06, 2014

Monday's Closing Futures Prices

Dec. corn closed at $3.32 and 1/2, up 9 and 1/4 cents
Nov. soybeans closed at $9.42 and 1/4, up 30 cents
Oct. soybean meal closed at $320.30, up $12.30
Oct. soybean oil closed at 33.32, up 103 points
Dec. wheat closed at $4.91 and 1/2, up 5 and 3/4 cents
Oct. live cattle closed at $163.05, up 65 cents
Oct. lean hogs closed at $107.17, up $1.57
Nov. crude oil closed at $90.94, up 60 cents
Dec. cotton closed at 64.38, up 191 points
Oct. Class III milk closed at $24.11, down 16 cents
Oct. gold closed at $1,206.70, up $14.50
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 16,991.97, down 17.72 points

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Ag Market News And ReCap

Soybeans were higher on commercial and technical buying. The trade was assessing the impact of weekend weather and waiting for the weekly progress numbers, along with Friday’s USDA reports. USDA reports that as of Sunday, 83% of U.S. beans are dropping leaves, compared to the five year average of 84%, and 20% is harvested, compared to 35% on average. 73% of U.S. beans are rated good to excellent, up 1% on the week.

Corn was higher on commercial and technical buying. Corn was also assessing weather from the past weekend, while waiting for USDA’s weekly crop numbers and the monthly set of supply, demand, and production numbers out Friday. According to USDA, 77% of corn is mature, compared to 81% on average, and 17% is harvested, compared to 32% on average. 74% of this year’s corn crop is called good to excellent, unchanged from a week ago. Ethanol futures were higher.

The wheat was higher on commercial and technical buying. Wheat’s oversold and with prices more competitive on the export market, there’s new commercial demand. For spring wheat, USDA says 96% is harvested, compared to 99% on average, and for winter wheat, 56% is planted, compared to 53% on average, with 28% emerged, compared to 24% on average.

Cattle country was quiet following the distribution of the new showlists. The early month offerings appears to be generally smaller than last week with only Nebraska showing a few more ready steers and heifers. A few asking prices have been reported around 164.00 to 165.00 in the South and 255.00 to 260.00 in the North. The cattle slaughter on Monday is estimated at 114,000 head, 1,000 below last week and 2,000 smaller than a year ago.

Boxed beef cutout values end sharply higher on moderate to fairly good demand and light offerings. Choice boxed beef was up 3.04 at 241.36, and select was up 3.02 at 229.38.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 42 to 135 points higher on Monday. The market was supported by the packer demand for cattle on Friday and sharply higher boxed beef values at midday. However many traders remain cautious due to tough packer margins and uncertain beef demand as completive meat supplies increase. October settled .65 higher at 163.05, and December was up .42 at 166.30.

Feeder cattle settled 35 to 87 points lower in thin trade volume. Some in the market believe last week’s runaway was overdone and due for a correction. Higher grain prices also weighed on feeder futures. October was down .87 at 240.00, and November was down .70 at 240.27.

Feeder cattle receipts at the Joplin, Missouri Regional Stockyards on Monday totaled 5,000 head. Compared to last week, steers weighing less than 550 pounds trended 2.00 to 8.00 higher, over 550 pounds mostly steady. Heifers traded 1.00 to 5.00 higher. Feeder steers medium and large 1 weighing 500 to 600 pounds traded from 260.00 to 282.50. 5 to 6 weight heifers brought 245.00 to 262.50.

Lean hogs settled unchanged to 285 higher. Triple digit gains were seen as the board moved to correct after Friday’s sharp drop. Nearby contracts were supported by strong wholesale demand and the premium status of the cash index. October was up 1.57 at 107.17, and December was 2.85 higher at 95.87.

There was slow hog market activity with light to moderate demand. Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed 3.16 lower at 104.47 weighted average carcass basis, the West was down 2.33 at 105.19, and the East was .26 lower at 102.20. Missouri direct base carcass meat price was 1.00 lower to 1.00 higher from 96.00 to 101.00. Midwest hogs closed steady with instances of 2.00 to 3.00 higher from 72.00 to 80.00 live basis.

The pork carcass value ended the day .70 higher at 124.45 FOB plant. Bellies, hams and loins were higher, all other cuts were lower.

Although the hog kill has been trailing 2013 more than expected, ready numbers typically increase significantly through October and November. That’s probably the way to bet over the next 30-60 days.

October is traditionally billed as “Pork Month”, a time when both producers and retailers work to more aggressively promote and feature the product to consumers. Such extra efforts should help counter the seasonal increase in live supplies.

Monday’s hog slaughter was estimated at 425,000 head, 55,000 more than last week, but 8,000 less than last year.

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Video: Moving Ag Research Forward Through Collaboration

BY: Ashley Robinson

It may seem that public and private researchers have different goals when it comes to agricultural research. However, their different strategies can work in tandem to drive agricultural research forward. Public research may focus more on high-risk and applied research with federal or outside funding, while private sector researchers focus more on research application.

“For me, the sweet spot for public private sector research is when we identify problems and collaborate and can use that diverse perspective to address the different aspects of the challenge. Public sector researchers can work on basic science high risk solutions as tools and technologies are developed. They then can work with their private sector partners who prototype solutions,” Mitch Tuinstra, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue University’s Department of Agronomy, said during the Jan. 10 episode of Seed Speaks.

Public researchers they have the flexibility to be more curiosity driven in their work and do discovery research. This is complimentary to private research, which focuses on delivering a product, explained Jed Christianson, canola product design lead for Bayer CropScience, explained during the episode.

“As a seed developer, we worry about things like new crop diseases emerging. Having strong public sector research where people can look into how a disease lifecycle cycle works, how widespread is it and what damage it causes really helps inform our product development strategies,” he added.

It’s not always easy though to develop these partnerships. For Christianson, it’s simple to call up a colleague at Bayer and start working on a research project. Working with someone outside of his company requires approvals from more people and potential contracts.

“Partnerships take time, and you always need to be careful when you're establishing those contracts. For discoveries made within the agreement, there need to be clear mechanisms for sharing credits and guidelines for anything brought into the research to be used in ways that both parties are comfortable with,” Christianson said.

Kamil Witek, group leader of 2Blades, a non-profit that works with public and private ag researchers, pointed out there can be limitations and challenges to these partnerships. While private researchers are driven by being able to make profits and stay ahead of competitors, public researchers may be focused on information sharing and making it accessible to all.

“The way we deal with this, we work in this unique dual market model. Where on one hand we work with business collaborators, with companies to deliver value to perform projects for them. And at the same time, we return the rights to our discoveries to the IP to use for the public good in developing countries,” Witek said during the episode.

At the end of the day, the focus for all researchers is to drive agricultural research forward through combining the knowledge, skills and specializations of the whole innovation chain, Witek added.

“If there's a win in it for me, and there's a win in it for my private sector colleagues in my case, because I'm on the public side, it’s very likely to succeed, because there's something in it for all of us and everyone's motivated to move forward,” Tuinstra said.