(I tried to post this a while back, but the connection wouldn't work--then I got too busy for a while...its a little old now, probably...oh well.)

Dip in crop prices expected: WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big harvests of grain and soybeans in the United States and overseas are continuing to push down commodity prices as stockpiles of the crops grow, the government said today.

The average price that farmers will get for soybeans this year is expected to range from $4.60 to $5.10 a bushel, down 15 cents from last month's projection, according to the Agricultural Department. Wheat and corn prices are expected to run about 5 cents lower than the October forecast.

This year's corn and soybean crops are the third biggest on record despite the drought that hurt farmers in the East and parts of the Midwest.

USDA raised its forecast of the corn harvest by 1 percent from last month to 9.54 billion bushels. Soybean production was forecast at 2.67 billion bushels, down 1 percent from last month.

Farmers will go into next spring with 2.02 billion bushels of corn stockpiled, up from the 1.8 billion they started with this spring and 1.3 billion bushels in 1998.

Stockpiles of wheat also are growing even though US farmers cut back on their acreage this year because of the low prices they were getting. USDA projected a surplus of 1 billion bushels for the 1999-2000 crop year, up from 946 million bushels for 1998-1999 and 722 million bushels for 1997-1998.

"These are very large numbers," commodity analyst Bill Biedermann said of the projected corn and wheat surpluses.

"That's the explanation of why we've got grain piled on the ground out in the country. We've got to get it down to a level where we're going to use it," said Biedermann, director of research for Allendale Inc.

Projected exports of US wheat are down 25 million bushels from last month because of increased competition from foreign producers. USDA said Argentina, Australia, Canada and Kazakstan all are raising bigger-than-expected crops this year.

-- S. Kohl (kohl@hcpd.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

So, if you stockpile, especially grains, you're helping out the country's farmers! It is actually a heroic act of selflessness, and you should be rewarded, I think. :0

-- S. Kohl (kohl@hcpd.com), November 23, 1999.

Grains should be dirt cheap because they are rotting on the ground next to the full grain silo's because the trains can't seem to figure out where the midwest is. I thought this only happenned in the former Soviet Union.

Hell, anyone living in the former Soviet Union that has any suggestions on how to get by with an infrastructure that sometimes work? We've already got the government and media lie machine up and running.

-- squid (Itsdark@down.here), November 24, 1999.

Hmmm - most storage facilities have environmental controls to keep that grain, those potatoes, those apples (etc.) fresh and edible. Wonder how many of the embedded systems in those environmental controls have been adequately tested. Sure hope the electricity stays on...Ever see potatoes running out from under a storage facility door? Ever smell them?

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), November 24, 1999.