NEWS FROM THE COFFEE SHOP: 2012-05-06

Saturday, May 12, 2012

More Hay Put Up

Finally saw some hay cut and baled along Hwy 20 #NE #Iowa #plant12 #haychat -- Crystal Blin (@crystalcattle)

Equipment Sales Report

Case 580 Super K backhoe (fair) with 2423 hours sold for $18,500 on southwest Ohio auction today http://t.co/sPKwbBJ7 -- Greg Peterson (@MachineryPete)

Friday, May 11, 2012

Nut House, Stable Boys, Crop Circles

By Pete Burmeister on

News From The Coffee Shop

May 11, 2012 10:07 AM

My wife graduated from the University of Northern Iowa's graduate school this past week. She doesn't like to brag, so I'll do it for her. It was quite an accomplishment. The way she managed a full time job, a toddler, a husband who works and farms, and a graduate program at the same time for 2 1/2 years without being committed to the nut house in Independence deserves an 'at a boy! The graduate ceremony was held on a Friday night. As usual, there was pomp and circumstance surrounding the event along with scattered names throughout the program that I couldn't correctly pronounce. Most were PhD students who were being "hooded" by their major professors. Thank God there were only a hand full. I was able to keep my composer through most of it, but when Wing Sez Winnie Wong hit the stage...... we'll c'mon! We celebrated the graduation by hosting a small party in the shop the next day.

If you've read this blog in the past week, you're aware that Saturday was also the running of the Kentucky Derby. As you could probably tell, I'm a horse racing fan. This year's Derby went down as most do, Churchill Downs and NBC walked away with the lions share of the profits while the stable boys walked away, well... dead. There's a dark side to every sport and the dark side to horse racing happens in the stables. Costas ought to get a microphone in front of the hired help if he wants to sell more TV, I guarantee some good stories would develop there. On second thought, that might be a better job for the folks at ABC. They seem to specialize in smear campaigns (ie. LFTB). There won't be a triple crown winner this year yet again. If Bodemeister breaks well at the Preakness next weekend, nobody will catch him on the shorter track. The Maryland Jockey Club does have a marketing jewel in I'll Have Another though, as they double down on all-you-can-drink-beer and rock concerts at the track on race day in an effort to promote the sport to younger generations. It won't work. The Preakness Stakes will be run on another track in the near future.

We're almost finished with planting season 2012. We actually missed a lot of the heavy rain and were able to be in the field every day this past week. For the record, the ground is working up almost as perfectly as one could hope for. All the time in the tractor must have the old man's wheels spinning. He was talking about planting square fields in circles the other day. My initial reaction was.... you're off your rocker! After talking it through, he's now got me wondering why they don't plant the irrigation pivots out west in circles, which would be the same shape. There would be a lot less turning. Please advise to prburmeister@gmail.com.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Best photo of the week

Photo by Ellen Chesnut- Boone County, IA

Making Hay!

From Scott Birker- Benton County, IA

Technology Option

Going to get local phone co demo "myfi", which will turn my tractor cab into a mobile hotspot, one unit for WiFi signal instead of 3 on 3G -- Jerod McDaniel (@jerodmcdaniel)

Newsreel Added

A newsreel has been recently added to the right side of the blog. Pre-selected topics will be updated weekly to help keep you better informed on current happenings going on around you.

Have a topic that needs to be listed for the week?

Text or email it to 319-327-0806 or prburmeister@gmail.com

Release Date- May 15, 2012

Crop Insurance Fact

crop insurance put on 85% RP kicks in at $4.80 cz12. #corn -- Tony Rohrs (@TonyRohrs)

USDA Report

While my opinion doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, USDA's numbers make no sense. -- Darin Newsom (@DarinNewsom)

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Agricultural Employment

Agriculture employs 21 million people—more than seven times as many workers as the U.S. automotive industry. #agfact #foodfact #AAW -- Cari Rincker (@CariRincker)

Student Loan Dilemma

by David Kohl in CSD Blogs and Opinions

May 8, 2012 1:48pm

The other day my road warrior travels took me to New England to a pre-wedding party for my son and his fiancée. After meeting everyone (boy, do they talk funny up there), a young man at the party struck up a conversation with me. He currently lives in New York City and graduated from a university three years ago.
This young man was quite knowledgeable about economics, despite being a liberal arts major and working in theater production. When he discovered I was a university professor, the conversation moved to his expenses as an undergraduate. He stated that the best education he received was at the community college level where he had close interaction with his professors. By the way, he felt that the community college education was very reasonably priced with a good value. He stated he was an honor graduate of a community college and decided to complete his education at a private university with a high price tag. To his disappointment, the university professors had other agendas besides teaching. Many of the faculty had taken early buyouts, and were replaced by less-qualified graduate assistants and part-time teachers.
His real dilemma was that in the final two years of his undergraduate education, his student loans accumulated to over $65,000, with few job prospects. Eventually, he found employment and is now saddled with high student loan payments, which have delayed both a vehicle purchase and the possibility of owning a home.
This young man is like many students, with collective student loan balances of approximately $875 billion nationwide. This compares to credit card debt of $700 billion and auto loans of $730 billion.
Thirty-seven million borrowers have outstanding student loan balances with 14.4% of student loan accounts past due. As with this young man, in many cases, parents and grandparents are co-signing, making them responsible for the debt. People over 50 are carrying $135 billion of student loan debt. Those over 60 have balances over $36 billion, according the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
It appears that student loan debt is not only an issue for young people, but a senior generation issue, as well. This can place both generations in the financial jailhouse for a long period of time. The young man at the wedding party was very well aware of this fact.

Editor’s note: Dave Kohl, Corn & Soybean Digest trends editor, is an ag economist specializing in business management and ag finance. He recently retired from Virginia Tech, but continues to conduct applied research and travel extensively in the U.S. and Canada, teaching ag and banking seminars and speaking to producer and agribusiness groups. He can be reached at sullylab@vt.edu.

Opening Market Calls

CORN: Corn futures are called steady to 3 lower this morning, Brugler Marketing said.

Most elevators have shifted bids to the July contract. May corn futures expire next Monday. Corn stocks at select export elevators and terminals were down 946,000 bushels from last week at 52.616 million bushels, Brugler Marketing said.

SOYBEANS: Soybeans are expected to open 10 to 15 cents lower, Brugler Marketing said.
Preliminary open interest data confirms the selling yesterday was long liquidation. Private exporters announced the sale of 60,000 MT of soybeans to China for 2011/12 delivery and 165,000 MT for 2012/13 delivery, Brugler Marketing reported. That is the seventh day in row of announced sales in soybeans. The rush to get out of commodities trumped the bullish news about commodities. There was also a sale of 40,000 MT of soybean oil to unknown delivery.

As seen on marketwatchonline.com