Is the bottom behind us?

It appears our full moon earlier in the week helped put the crop price lows in.

Markets concluded the shortened trading week with positive attitudes – thinking crude oil could pull things up along with the stock market. Wayne Nelson of L&M Commodities in New Market, Indiana feels we may have already seen a short-term bottom with this cool, wet weather moving across the Midwest.

“We didn’t see a lot of crops go in the ground but we saw a lot of people working, anhydrous going on and a few beans being planted but hardly any corn,” Nelson told The Central Illinois Farm Network.

At the temperatures we expect to see in the next week, it would take corn 22 to 27 days to come up if it was already planted. This means there is not much corn in the ground just yet. With the three day weekend for the markets (which are closed Good Friday), it is anyone’s guess as to what things will look like on Monday.

Many are closely monitoring the price of crude oil to see if it could help the ethanol situation at some point.

“I think we are going to look and see what the weather says to see if we will get in the fields earlier than what we were thinking,” said Nelson.

Nelson also wonders if China is going to start buying corn and other things along the way.

This was a more exciting week for the markets when compared to recent weeks and quite an end to it with the government report, also known as the USDA WASDE numbers. It seemed like there were negative numbers as we cut back ethanol usage and carried in a few more beans.