Market Matters Blog

Data's pretty important in the month of October.

I've written plenty about the October Crop Production reports, but let's not forget that the fall crop insurance price is set this month. Or that as harvest rolls on, farmers are deciding whether to store or sell their grain.

And then there's the total shutdown of USDA's livestock newswire, which many in the business use to gauge prices, thanks to Congress's inability to pass a budget.

DTN's trying to help the information void. On the livestock issues, DTN's contacted most of the top sale barns and are publishing their sale prices on our own. On our satellite units and online subscriptions, this information is where you always find it. On satellite, that means the livestock menu. On online, it's under the USDA tab on the markets page.

For grain growers, the calculation for the fall harvest price option for revenue insurance is underway. RMA usually keeps that information on its website, but like many other government websites, it's been taken down because of the federal shutdown. Like we did last spring, DTN's computing the running average price every day, so you can watch how it changes over the course of the month. As of October 8, the running average corn price was $4.42 per bushel and $12.85 bpa for soybeans. For both satellite and online subscriptions, this page can be found by selecting the news menu and going to the ag news tab. It's located toward the bottom of the page.

You'll find another piece of information there too -- a cost of carry calculation. As harvest presses on and you face decisions about whether to sell or store your grain, this tool shows whether or not the market is paying you to store it. DTN's Prophet X users have had access to this calculator for a while, but we think it's important for all of our customers to see. A special thanks goes to Gary Strasburg, whose simple question on blog, "Will You Dust Off the Storage Hedge?", prompted us to find a way to bring it to everyone.

Please take some time to check this information out. I hope it's useful.

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