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Chip Flory

Chip’s hometown of Oxford Junction is in east-central Iowa. His family farm was a typical diversified farm with corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, a commercial cattle herd, a farrow-to-finish hog operation and sheep. After graduating from Iowa State University, Chip joined Pro Farmer in January 1988 as a floor reporter for Futures World News. He spent 3 years in Chicago reporting from the floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Chip moved to Pro Farmer headquarters in April 1991, was named editor in 1997 and remained in that role for 17 years. In 2014 he started the P.M. hour of AgriTalk and became the host of both hours of AgriTalk in 2019.

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Beyond a few marketing strategies or providing a unique product for a niche market, sustainable practices offer opportunity in what looks to be another low-priced period in the grain markets.
Until USDA’s May WASDE report rolls around, these acreage, yield, supply and ending stock figures are the talk of the town.
Some fields have a spot that consistently does not produce, but don’t ignore those acres. If 156 acres average 200 bu. per acre, but 4 acres average 20 bu., the yield on the 160-acre field drops to 195.5 bu. per acre.
Chip Flory warns that as more crush capacity comes online, the soybean market might realize it waited too long to bid for 2024 soybean acres.
Pay attention to the national corn yield, the number of planted corn acres and Brazil’s corn and soybean crops.
The shift to an El Niño weather pattern is creating dynamic market conditions. In particular, the U.S. soybean market will be extremely sensitive to threats to the Brazilian crop.
Soybean demand makes the market more receptive to a postharvest rally if production trends lower into January. Corn exports are behind last year’s pace, and importers are turning to Brazil’s corn.
Whether you have a low-cost operation, a highly leveraged operation or are somewhere in between, it’s a good idea to run an ROI analysis to understand just how good or bad marketing opportunities are at any time.
After the June report, traders prepared for a “new” trading environment with “burdensome” corn supplies and “pipeline” soybean supplies. Then came the anticlimactic July report.
The job market is strong, and the economy is slowly growing. However, there are four complicating issues making investors defensive, which reduces money flow to the markets.