Katie Geerdes

When I started farming in the early 1970’s, we owned our hogs and our hog operation paid the bills and sourced our equity. I bought and paid for a model 1066 IHC tractor with the profit from just 400 head of fat hogs. I wondered then why we were not raising thousands of them. This was the time when the industry was moving indoors with farrowing stalls and slatted finishing barns. We farrowed sows either in A-frames or bedded pens like the foodie producers do today. Most of our hogs were bought as feeder pigs. Our hogs were finished in traditional sheds, partially outside with straw bedding and pens cleaned with a skid-steer loader. We built one slatted finishing barn and that is where our focus on hog production shifted fully to cattle. We never made the transition to confinement production. We never wanted to be obligated to facility mortgages. We did not add to our land base during this period but we kept what we had. We got along fine with the volatility of the hog cycle. Ironically, many hog producers fared better during the Ag depression of the 1980’s than grain farmers did up until 1998 when the…

Private property rights are under attack in Dickinson County Iowa where I reside. It is not the first time. Years ago, area residents successfully put out enough intimidation so that the commercial hog industry avoided the county. The county is home to the Iowa Great Lakes which is the state’s premier tourist attraction resulting in a huge seasonal influx of folks each summer. It is understandable that the tourist asset needs to be protected. While I do not believe that the vacation destination was at actual risk, they erred on the side of caution and built elsewhere. This established Dickinson County as a Nimby (Not in my backyard) haven where the residents enjoy the benefits of economic development coming from elsewhere. They are privileged.   There is another controversy going on over easements for CO2 pipelines proposed to transport CO2 across Iowa to sequestration in ND. In this instance CO2 pipeline companies must acquire voluntary easements from enough of the impacted landowners for the IUB to approve use of eminent domain to acquire the rest. This is a process with a lot of precedent in the process. It has required the companies/utilities to get at least 75% of the easements…

NIMBY (not in my backyard) or PIMBY (please in my backyard) …I have been both depending on what was coming. While landowners decry use of eminent domain, we would not have a lot of roads, airports, waste treatment plants, power or pipelines without it. That infrastructure benefits the public and the interpretation of what is in the public interest is split as are so many other things today. You are never going to get 100% of landowners to concede to an easement across their property without the final execution of eminent domain. That said, the argument against abuse of eminent domain may have started in my office with opposition to the Rock Island Power Line, a proposed transmission line, unprecedented in the size of its footprint. There are lots of power lines, pipelines and such that have been built where the value of the easement paid was a fraction of what its market value. Eminent domain could be used to undermine market values for easements.   Navigator tried to use the old traditional model for terms paid for easements and failed miserably to get takers. Navigator CO2 pipeline reportedly only secured 15% of needed easements in IL and failed to…

With a carryover corn stock’s estimate of some 2.156 bln bushels, an increase of 795 mln bushels from the previous year carryover of 1.361 bln, there is extra corn to go somewhere. The trade is already calling for fewer planted corn acres in 2024, but a trendline yield could negate any accompanying reduction in production from fewer planted acres. Supply is setting up to remain burdensome for some time. Without some new compensating source of demand, it will be very difficult to reduce burdensome corn stocks.   Low river levels impede corn exports from the ECB. This should be just a short-term problem but anything that backs corn up is negative to the balance sheet. To arrive at their 2.156 bln bushel carryover, they look for exports to improve by 414 mln, which many see as too optimistic but of course weather in South America will determine that. China produced a larger crop and appears to have put the US at the bottom of their list sourcing corn imports.   USDA also has an increase pegged in of 101 mln bushels of corn being fed. Cattle numbers are declining but days on feed are being added increasing market weights. Beef…

What I Miss Most About Farming is the Smell   I have pretty much retired from the physical aspect of farming. I had always looked forward to being able to go other places and do other things during planting and harvest seasons when retired. I have to admit that it is enjoyable not being tied to a calendar. Spent a few days in NYC recently having a wonderful time. On the way to and from the airport I watched the combines, grain carts and tillage equipment rolling up the harvest and I had to admit that it did evoke some old feelings. I miss many of the smells. I think that the smell of fall during the soybean harvest, the combination of the first brisk fall time air and soybean dust, was a favorite. We used to moldboard plow corn stalks and I loved the smell of the freshly turned dirt. We picked corn in the ear and ear corn has a more distinct smell then does the combine. I loved smelling ear corn when unloading it into the elevator. Now I cannot say that I know anyone that liked the smell of hog manure but cattle manure has a…

To Our Customers and Farming Family: We want to send a sincere thank you to all of you who have given us the opportunity to earn your business!  We greatly appreciate you and your contribution to the ag community.  We wish you a safe and successful holiday season with lots of food, fellowship and happiness.  We count you among our many blessings.  – The CommStock Family NEW CORN RECCO DAY 2: On past advice we’re 50% sold at an average cash price just over $5. With basis already better than average and likely to firm, set a target of 484 in December futures for selling another 10% and an additional 15% if December hits 498. These are just below chart resistance areas and will take sales to 75% when executed.   OPTIONAL RECCO TACTIC: If this plan to get to 75% sold at those prices is too aggressive for you, consider buying 510 March call options on 25% now. (They will only get more expensive if you wait until the pricing targets are hit.) We call these “courage calls.” Why? Because they give you the courage to follow a scale-up selling plan by offering “protection” for potential “opportunity cost” at…

Chinese premier Xi Jinping has not governed, ruled or whatever the Communist party calls it in China, how Americans that came to know him before he became president of China expected that he would. He was one of the elite princelings that was groomed to become the leader of his country. In his younger days, he spent some time here, in Iowa actually, showing interest in US Agriculture. He stayed with farm families and cultivated a relationship with former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad who later was appointed as Ambassador to China specifically because of his relationship with Xi. I do not know if Trump really needed or desired anyone to be US ambassador to China, as he would call all the shots and rarely took anyone else’s experience or input as important. He reduced the traditional roles of Ambassadors and Cabinet members to being mere lackeys which is why so many of his former officials do not hold him in good esteem today. Americans who thought that they knew Xi Jinping have had difficulty reconciling the guy that they met when he lived here to the characterization he has earned since.   Insiders say that President Xi is very much…

NEW CORN RECCO DAY 1: On past advice we’re 50% sold at an average cash price just over $5. With basis already better than average and likely to firm, set a target of 484 in December futures for selling another 10% and an additional 15% if December hits 498. These are just below chart resistance areas and will take sales to 75% when executed.   OPTIONAL RECCO TACTIC: If this plan to get to 75% sold at those prices is too aggressive for you, consider buying 510 March call options on 25% now. (They will only get more expensive if you wait until the pricing targets are hit.) We call these “courage calls.” Why? Because they give you the courage to follow a scale-up selling plan by offering “protection” for potential “opportunity cost” at a fixed cost (the option premium) if prices rally for whatever reasons well beyond these pending sales triggers.   On the Grains: Overnight trade is steady to firm. Soybeans again lead the way after yesterday’s sharp rebound and this time even wheat is steady to firm on its coattails.   Weekly grain inspections reported yesterday morning were mostly uneventful, all falling well within the range of…

Rain in the forecast for Brazil next week was a bearish weight on the grain market as it remained the primary focus when no daily export sales announcements were reported on Friday morning. Still, early concern about the availability of the Brazilian crops has already been linked to increased U.S. export demand and large grain importers like China will continue making purchase decisions that are heavily influenced by global weather conditions.   Dry weather in Brazil is currently the biggest factor, but it is not the only driver of potential strength for trade demand. A weaker dollar has also been helping corn and soybean exports accelerate recently. Favorable shifts in exchange rates only amplify the relative value for U.S. grain over exports from Brazil and other competitors. With U.S. corn priced above Brazil just less than a month ago, the current spread now has corn offers out of the Gulf of Mexico as much as 3.5 percent cheaper than Brazil. The premium for U.S. soybeans over Brazil has also narrowed considerably since October.   There were flash sale announcements made on all of the four mornings leading up to Friday, including more soybeans to China and large corn sales made…

The “Green Zealots” hyping EV’s have fact-lovers seeing red! When I see the breathless hype about how electric vehicles (EVs) will halt global warming and end dependence on liquid fuels I’m speechless. I’m reminded of the famous scene from The Wizard of Oz, where the phony “wizard” projected on a screen tells Dorothy and friends to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Now a major new study puts facts and figures behind the honest skepticism.   The think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) research is no friend of biofuels because they are funded by Koch, Chevron, Exxon and other fossil fuel interests and have been branded by NPR as “climate change deniers.” But there’s an old expression that says “The enemy of my enemy can be my friend” and the EV-zealots are no friend of biofuels either!   That said, TPPF has produced credible research showing that EVs on the market today would cost tens of thousands of dollars more if not for a plethora of generous taxpayer-funded incentives. To be precise, the work shows how the average model year 2021 EV would cost $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period without the staggering $22 billion…