Dairy price outlook not as rosy as futures market - AgMinute for March 18, 2015

Dairy analysts warn U.S. dairy suppliers and milk producers against putting too much faith in current futures pricing, which they say is presenting a false "slope of hope." Click here for the full story

Dairy markets ride high - AgMinute for January 16, 2014

Prices for dairy products and milk are high on very tight global supplies. Adverse weather conditions in Europe and New Zealand and high feed costs in major exporting regions set the stage for strong markets and strong U.S. exports. Click here for the full story

Turkish patent delight — Idaho AgMinute for March 28, 2013

The Idaho potato industry has prevailed in its efforts to stop a Turkish agricultural company from using the word "Idaho" to promote various agricultural commodities.

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AgMinute for June 22, 2012

A new program at Idaho's largest farmers' market is trying to take the local food theme to a higher level. The program will educate the Capital City Public Market's 10,000 weekly visitors on the sustainable practices of the market's 57 producers.

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To listen, click here.

USMEF: November exports achieve highs

From the U.S. Meat Export Federation:

November exports of U.S. pork and beef reached their highest monthly volumes in more than two years, according to results compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Pork exports totaled 177,203 metric tons valued at $443.4 million - increases of 5 percent in volume and 15 percent in value over November 2009. For January through November, exports were up 2 percent in volume (1.73 million metric tons) and 10 percent in value ($4.34 billion). The cumulative value total is just 4 percent below the all-time record pace set in the first 11 months of 2008. For the year, exports accounted for 23.6 percent of production with a per-head value equivalent of $43.61 ($44.80 in November alone). For the same period in 2009, exports equated to 22.5 percent of production with a per-head value of $38.42. In the record export year of 2008, the per-head value was $42.30.

Beef export value in November was $389.5 million, an increase of nearly 50 percent over November 2009. By volume (101,323 metric tons), beef exports exceeded the year-ago level by 32 percent. For the first 11 months of 2010, exports were 18 percent above 2009 in terms of volume (964,369 metric tons) and 30 percent higher by value ($3.67 billion). The value total is about 1 percent ahead of the 2003 pace when beef exports went on to set a single-year record of $3.86 billion. Exports accounted for 11.6 percent of production with a per-head value equivalent of $150.36 ($178. 20 in November) - up dramatically from the 2009 totals of 9.8 percent and $117.80.

"November was clearly one of the best months on record for U.S. meat exports," said USMEF President and CEO Philip Seng. "With economies improving throughout the world, U.S. pork and beef are well-positioned for strong growth. We worked through some very difficult economic circumstances in 2009, but we're now seeing those persistent marketing efforts pay big dividends as exports are adding more and more value to every animal produced."

More here.

Commodity prices find a home at capitalpress.com

I took the commodity price charts off the Blogriculture site. We now feature the same price information on the main capitalpress.com website, in expanded versions that show a graph of the price trend for your commodity of choice.

We started out with the market prices here, in part, because on our old website software made it more difficult to add that type of information and the in our old layout there really wasn't a good place to put the charts. But now that the information has a home on our main news site, it seemed less important to have them here. Now I'm thinking perhaps we need to ad small versions of those charts to our mobile website next.

Perhaps we will use the freed-up real estate here to try out some other widget or feature to determine if we want to use it on our main site or mobile.

Portland-area market promotes 'buy local' philosophy

The folks at New Seasons Market want to give consumers a change to meet the folks that raise their food. They've done a nice little video to promote a lamb-tasting event they've got going on this weekend.

I stumbled upon it this week on YouTube, which was pretty exciting to see something about agriculture right here on the West Coast in an online video. In this case they are promoting the whole "buy local" philosophy.

I've been toying with the idea of highlighting agriculture related videos here on the Blogriculture site. So I thought, as something of a test drive of that idea, I'd share the New Seasons video with Blogriculture visitors. It's interesting to see how those in and around the ag industry are using the Internet.

New Seasons also has some videos on its YouTube channel to introduce people to farmers and ranchers who grow for their markets.

Do you read the numbers?

Some members for the Capital Press staff, mostly some of us who work in the newsroom, are going to be calling on our readers to help us figure out how to tailor what we do to fit them best.

So we will literally be picking up the phones talk to subscribers in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California to talk turkey — and hay, cattle, milk, grains, etc. Specifically we are going to be asking them questions about our Markets pages, where we print information about various commodity prices each week. (Read more about what's behind this effort in this week's column by Managing Editor Carl Sampson.) If you are a Capital Press reader, you can help us out too if you like. Here are the questions we will be asking. If you want to participate, you can do so by answering the questions below and sending them to me via e-mail.

Capital Press Market Reports Survey

Are you a subscriber to the Capital Press? (If not, how often do you read Capital Press?)

Do you read the Market reports in the Capital Press?

Which ones?

Do you get Market reports from our website, capitalpress.com, or other Internet sources?

Which ones?

Do you use them in addition to the market reports printed in the Capital Press or instead of them?

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most important and 1 being not important at all, how important to you are the Market reports printed in the Capital Press?

Do you have any suggestions for improving the Capital Press?

Trading in rumors

The more I learn about the way stocks and commodities markets function, the more it strikes me as a cross between legalized gambling and a junior high school lunchroom. Everyone seems to be playing for high stakes based on the prevailing gossip of the day.

Take for example the recent run-up on wheat and other commodity prices. Wheat futures approached $10 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, and wheat prices topped $10 per bushel in the Portland grain market, because buyers and traders were worried about the global supply of grain due to wheat problems in places like Australia. But lately, the futures prices have started dropping.

Why? Because the U.S. dollar is getting stronger against foreign currencies, thus making it more expensive for other countries to import U.S. goods. But global grain supplies haven't suddenly improved.

What's most interesting is that the price swings have for wheat have been dramatic. There is a 30-cent per day limit on price swings on wheat, which was huge when wheat was trading about $4 per bushel, but now at $8, $9 or $10 per bushel, those swings aren't as massive, but the fact that the trading limits have been reached several times in recent weeks is quite interesting.

Got to love those folks on the trading floors of the major U.S. markets. They are nothing if not melodramatic. Maybe that comes from having a job that forces you to stand in a pit and shout at people and gesture wildly to get noticed in flurries of activity and make financial decisions based on who is whispering what about whom.

I can't help but chuckle and scratch my head. The more I learn about how all that financial stuff works, the more it makes absolutely no sense to this simple ol' country boy. It makes about as much sense as social dynamics among teens and preteens. Just because the people involved are wearing expensive business suits doesn't change how silly it all looks to an outsider.

What a difference a year makes

I'm not expert on the commodities markets, nor am I an agriculture economist, so I don't know what the net outcome will be of this year's rapidly rising wheat prices, but wheat rancher have to be happy about the ongoing rise of grain prices.

The futures market for wheat reached the trading limit of a 30-cent upward price swing in the first 5 minutes of trading today and closed above $8 a bushel for the first time ever (see story here).

That's about twice what wheat was trading at at this time last year. So if we use Idaho's wheat forecast as a guide, that would mean a difference of about $324 per acre if the 81 bushels per acre forecast holds up.

That's just rough cyphering, as my grandfather might say if he were still around. And that's not to say that farmers would see all that money either. But it will be a boost to wheat growers who have been struggling under the yoke of very low prices in recent years.

Given global shortages of grain, it's not looking like wheat has yet hit its peak for the year.

How closely do you follow the markets?

How important is daily agriculture commodity market news to you?

The Capital Press is currently testing some market charts that show various market prices for commodities like beef, hogs, grains, and dairy prices traded on various commodity exchanges.
The test charts currently appear here on our blog site on the right side of the page.

The editors of the Capital Press staff are asking readers for feedback on whether the information listed in the charts is helpful.

The charts being tested are currently only updated after the markets close each day. However, the service we are considering for our http://www.capitalpress.com/ website would give us the option of monitoring specific stocks and do updates throughout the day. We are currently considering something like three updates each day on the indicies and/or stocks.

Let us know if this service would be of interest to you as a capitapress.com reader. If so, would three updates a day be enough? Too much? Not enough?

If you like, or don’t like, what you see, please send Associate Editor Gary L. West an e-mail or leave a comment on this post with your thoughts on the charts or other suggestions. For example if there are certain agriculture stocks you would like us to provide updates on, that would be helpful to know. If there are commodities that we shouldn't list, like perhaps coffee or cocoa, that would be helpful too.

We are working to make our website the best online for agriculture news and information for farmers, ranchers and agribusiness industry professionals in the Western United States and you can help us do that by sharing your thoughts on what news and information you need to do your job better.

Thanks for your help.