Dehlinger's Favorite Story of 2024
Connecting the Dots Between Brazilian Beans Buys and Long Elevator Lines
As the year came to a close, we once again asked the DTN/Progressive Farmer reporting team to pick out the most significant, most fun, or otherwise their favorite, story of 2024. They range from solar events to seeing how seed corn is produced, political/policy coverage to wildfire impact, to including profiles of American farmers and ranchers who shared their marketing, production and even life choices with our writers. We hope you enjoy our writers' favorites, continuing the series with today's story by DTN Farm Business Editor Katie Dehlinger.
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MT. JULIET, Tenn. (DTN) -- As I flipped through social platform X last January, a farmer's post showing a pile of dirty snow and beat-up concrete silos told a sweet story about waiting in line at that elevator with his dad.
Tekamah, Nebraska, farmer Quentin Connealy's post warmed my heart, but it also made me wonder why there was a massive line. It was January and prices were the lowest they'd been in years. The DTN National Soybean Index, a measure of cash prices across the country, had just hit the lowest level since December 2020 at $11.42 per bushel.
I didn't understand why Connealy would sit in that line for such an unattractive (at the time) price, so I asked him. His answer connected a local cash-grain market development to an unseasonably early purchase of Brazilian soybeans by an East Coast crusher.
In journalism lingo, we call that a local angle to global story. I'm personally not a fan of a lot of those stories. In general, I think they try to stretch too hard to make a point or connection; but in this case, I was astonished by my luck.
"It's an interesting example of how the combination of weather factors in Brazil and demand factors in China are not only causing long truck waiting times in Fremont but also likely adding to the availability of supplies in the Midwest and weighing on local bids," DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman told me at the time.
That's why this story was my favorite to write of 2024. With all of the moving pieces in today's grain markets, my curiosity about a sentimental post led me to write a story of cause and effect, covering the changing nature of supply, demand, freight and more. It was a stroke of luck, and a joy to write. I hope you enjoy it.
You can see the complete story at https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com
Follow her on social platform X @KatieD_DTN
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