11-9 IAN Snapshot

There is a very cool service that is provided by a company called Northwest Farm Credit Services.  It’s called market snapshot. Market Snapshot is basically  a review of the harvest in the Northwest, an analysis of who, what, when, and where followed by projections for the future.  So in effect these good people at Northwest Farm Credit Services are doing homework for you producers in order to give you some sense of strategy. Here is brainiac and all-around good guy Michael Stolp ?Vice President – Market Research and Development. “When we began this year we had a very cool and wet spring and there were a lot of questions about the health of the North West ag crops. However as we have come through the season and gotten a number of harvests we see a number of commodities that did quite well. Most wheat producers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho report average to well-above-average yields. We have had 60 bushel per acre, some areas with 90 bushels per acre. On the flip side we have seen wheat prices that have come down due to world supplies and a lot of uncertainty in our international markets.

Potatoes turned out that are then expected as we are well into harvest and there is some sense that the strength that those markets have seen will continue as processors display interest in the 2011 crop. The sugar beet crop has sized up nicely and we see a strong sugar market moving into 2012 with co-ops contracting accordingly.”