Cash Market Moves

Nonstop rain and overland flooding in parts of North Dakota and Minnesota are dampening the hopes of farmers wanting to get all their intended wheat, durum and other crops planted.

Farmers in the Northern Plains and northwest Minnesota are behind on planting due to heavy snow, rain in April and now spring flooding.

Every U.S. rail shipper and all union rail employees were represented in force at the recent two-day STB hearings on poor rail service.

The Surface Transportation Board said they have been hearing informally from a broad range of stakeholders about inconsistent and unreliable rail service.

The first saltie has arrived to open the Port of Duluth-Superior 2022 grain shipping season.

The daily DTN National Corn Index midweek showed corn bids in some parts of the Midwest and Southern Plains have surpassed the $8 cash price.

Dairy farmers in the war-torn areas of Ukraine are struggling to survive, with some dairies already destroyed by the Russians, and others have infrastructure losses, such as a recent story from Lancaster Farming highlighted.

After a devastating drought last summer for many spring wheat and durum growers, and high fertilizer prices this year, planting intentions for spring wheat acres are in question.

The arrival of the first tow of the Upper Mississippi River shipping season this year was rather exciting compared to years past.

Shortly after midnight on March 20, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced the Canadian Pacific Railway locked the union workers out.

Over 3,000 workers at the Canadian Pacific have voted to go on strike midweek if their current requests are not met.

Soft red and hard red winter wheat futures continue to end each day at their daily limit, causing the cash basis to break lower.

After the limit-up move in futures Thursday, the basis wasn't sure what to do and, at the end of the day, the DTN national average fell lower.

The Port of Duluth-Superior and the St. Lawrence Seaway reported that more cargo transited the system in 2021 than during 2020, when the pandemic proved challenging for the industry.

The Surface Transportation Board recently issued a decision denying a request to extend the upcoming hearing dealing with reciprocal switching.

The final laker arrived in Superior, Wisconsin, on Jan. 17, ending the 2021 shipping season at the Port of Duluth-Superior.

Three U.S. rivers currently face problems that are negatively affecting barge traffic.

U.S. Identity Preserved is a designation signifying a premium crop with a verifiable origin.

The 2021 drought in the Northern Plains left many farmers with very little, if any, of their spring wheat crop by the time harvest came around. But when I interviewed them for my drought story, they mourned their loss and then looked ahead to 2022, hoping for a better season.

Given the variable weather conditions at planting and harvest throughout the U.S. Corn Belt in 2021, the crop ended up being the second largest on record.