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Eero Pikat
Publisher & President
GrainProfessional

In the past few issues, I have written about the strong correlation between the Dollar and commodities, leaving commodity prices largely influenced by many non-endemic factors. I think this will continue to be the case until some major changes happen in Washington.

The U.S. is facing major domestic challenges and I do not think that we are optimally positioned economically or politically to tackle these. At the foundation is a two-paced economy. Unemployment, and the “Great Recession” are not universal, but affect some states (California, Florida, Nevada, etc.), and not others (like the Great Plains States). This imbalance is not only regional, but is also seen within these regions. While the overall unemployment rate is hovering at just under 10%, the rate for non-college educated adults is 15%, but those with a four-year degree have an unemployment rate of just 4.7%, and those with higher educations are well below 4%. In IT, the rate is under 3%, and in some fields, it’s less than 1%.

What this means politically is friction. Unemployed individuals also vote, and politicians don’t cater to the greater good of the economy or the country, but to the greater good of their constituency, or whomever puts them in office. And so we have fractious gridlock, with little incentive on either side to budge. Some might say that there is nothing wrong with gridlock, and while I might argue the same in other times, right now is not a good time for stagnation—mainly because too many things are completely uncertain. With less than 30 days to go, no one has any idea what their 2011 tax bill will look like. Individuals, middle class and upper income, are in limbo, as are corporations, both big and small. This type of uncertainty isn’t exactly a great motivator for an economic recovery.

The Dollar is influenced by many things, among them the interest rates of U.S. Treasuries and the confidence that bond holders, foreign and domestic, have in the U.S. government and the U.S. economy. Right now, we have no leadership, no motion, no movement, and no clear indication from Washington on where things will be. Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing 2 (QE2) is seeing strong opposition. The Fed is arguing that without QE2 we will see deflation. Others are saying that there’s no worry about deflation, but that QE2 will spur inflation, and destroy the U.S. Dollar. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between, but if QE2 is fully enacted, expect the Dollar to fall against Gold, Crude, Corn, and other commodities (read Corn prices go up). If it stalls, then the Dollar will get stronger (read Corn prices go down). What is, however, seemingly universally accepted by most economists, is that the current rate of U.S. spending vs. income is untenable. While there is probably still some “give” for the current imbalances, anything longer term will cause serious downward pressure on the U.S. Dollar. Another wildcard would be if a state, like California or Illinois, needed a bailout. At that point, we would see the same pressure on the U.S. Dollar that we are seeing on the Euro due to the bailouts of Greece and Ireland. Having to bailout a U.S. State would probably cause Treasury rates to go up, which would make U.S. borrowing costlier, prompting perhaps not a complete disaster, but still a very serious problem for Washington.

The Euro also affects the Dollar. While Germany seems to be well positioned and in a strong economic position, and France is “so-so”, the southern countries of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Ireland present huge problems to the European Central Bank (ECB). While Greece and Ireland are now seeing some debt relief, this is temporary, and there are huge revolving amounts coming due in 2011. While I don’t think the Euro will be disbanded altogether, there will be tremendous pressure on the currency, and Germany, Austria, and the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) will have to shoulder a huge burden. It is possible that Greece, Portugal, or Spain would have to step out of the Euro. By mid 2011, the Euro might be on par with the Dollar. This will mean more money flow into the Dollar, which will probably suppress commodity prices.

No economic outlook is complete without a brief mention of China. China is currently very well positioned, but they are seeing some domestic issues that they will need to deal with. Outwardly, China is resisting devaluing their currency, but internal inflation will force the issue. I think quietly, over the next few years, China will push the value of the Renminbi down, which will ease pressure on the Dollar, and perhaps rebalance U.S. exports, which will mean a stronger Dollar, and lower commodity prices.

In summary, I think that left just to our own domestic conditions, the Dollar would be in complete and utter free-fall, but due to negative worldwide economic factors, the Dollar has some lift. The fractious nature of Washington is probably more cohesive than the various political influences inside Europe, which may bode well for Dollar vs. Euro, and as such, keep commodity prices from skyrocketing. But uncertainty abounds everywhere, and unforeseen external factors could throw things completely off, such as a war on the Korean peninsula. I think, however, that there are, on balance, more immediate influences to push the value of the Dollar up, and commodity prices down, for the first 6 months of 2011. And then, I think, the trend will reverse, and commodity prices will start rising in the latter half of 2011.

Garret J. Toay

Garrett J. Toay
AgTraderTalk
Clive, IA
(888) 359-3895
trader@agtradertalk.com
www.agtradertalk.com

The grain markets saw large liquidation following the November USDA report on concerns that China would raise interest rates to control their inflation problems. The biggest problem with the rally we’ve seen in grains is that with managed money and index funds holding such a large percentage of open interest, when a catalyst like the Chinese come along, there’s only one door. And while the fundamentalists were at the mercy of the technicians for the month, ultimately, fundamentals remain friendly to grains.

While China continues to institute price controls to curb speculation and limit lending to such sectors as construction, they’re also increasing the amount of money available to the ag sector in order to ultimately boost production. Trade continues to question Chinese corn production estimates and with the Chinese negotiating with the Argentines for corn, many believe where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Adding to the news late in the month was the Russians are negotiating with the Argentines for up to 3 mmt of corn, so the Argentines have essentially 50% of their total exports already spoken for even with corn planting 78% complete as of 11/25. This will continue to create underlying support for grains while La Nina conditions present dryness issues throughout Argentina and southern Brazil.

The market has little to go on between now and the middle of December when trade will start focusing on the January crop report. Trade is still confused about the size of the US soybean crop as they have been looking for larger numbers in both October and November only to be disappointed. Chinese demand continues to add underlying support to beans with them booking 5.5 mmt of business during the month, in addition to their normal business.

Traders in corn continue to look for signs of tightening basis. Many cash markets firmed on the flat price break as end users in the southeast, cattle markets in the plains, dairies in California and to some extent PNW values have firmed. The one market that continues to lag is the CIF export market and the trade has noticed that despite export inspections running 2.2 mbu behind the same period last year, the market hasn’t seen the almost daily occurrence of export business like we’ve seen from the Chinese in beans. Part of that is due to the fact that end users are seeking alternatives such as feed wheat and DDG exports remain brisk. The US exported the equivalent of 122.1 mbu of corn via DDGs in September and the Chinese, who have taken over as the main destination for US DDGs, have said their imports could ultimately triple to 8 mmt, which is about the total US DDG production. But for the time being, there doesn’t seem to be a “panic” that corn supplies are tight, yet.

Macro markets continue to bring inflows and outflows from the commodity markets. Trade will continue to focus on cash corn markets and South American weather. Ultimately, the wash out which occurred over the past month is healthy to the market and it gave end users who may have missed out on extending coverage previously to get coverage extended. Farmer selling remains non-existent at these levels and for the most part, they are cash flush, so with replacement ownership unknown, basis has to appreciate to levels that force the hedger to sell. Basis has firmed but nothing more than above average, seasonal type appreciation. The month of December should be fairly quiet but look for trade to pick up getting into the end of the year.

Craig Solberg

Craig Solberg
Freese-Notis Weather
Des Moines, IA
(515) 323-6017
craigs@weather.net
www.weather.net

La Niña conditions that began during the early summer of this year show little sign of abating, and thus this event still looks like it will play a dominate role in the weather over the next three months (at least), both here in the Northern Hemisphere and in the key grain growing areas in the Southern Hemisphere. At last check, almost the entire equatorial Pacific was recording sea-surface temperatures that were at least one to two degrees Celsius below normal, with pockets where ocean waters were running two to three degrees Celsius below normal. Model projections suggest that we may see some moderating of those cool ocean temperature anomalies in the eastern equatorial Pacific by especially the second half of winter (though readings would remain a solid distance below normal), but anomalies are forecast to plunge to even more dramatic sub-normal levels further west in that same period. The bottom line is that this La Niña is here to stay for a while (and in fact it shows every sign of continuing at least into spring…something to consider as we start contemplating weather forecasts for the 2011 U.S. growing season).

With the above in mind, here’s a recap of what I would expect for the next 90 days, a period that should feature fairly “classic” La Niña weather for large parts of the world:

• December may be chilly for a large part of the eastern United States, but by late month and especially for January/February we will see that area warm up nicely as a strong ridge of high pressure forms in the southeastern part of the Nation. The entire winter will be cold for the Northern Plains and points west and northwest. In between those two areas, the clashing of the cold and warm regimes should mean a lot of wet weather in the Corn Belt and Delta…something that already began in the second half of November and really started to put a dent in long-term drought problems for those areas.
• Far western parts of the hard-red winter wheat belt had an extremely dry fall, and I would not expect any improvement there this winter as precipitation will be below normal.
• Argentina is likely to see below normal rainfall. Rainfall already has not been abundant in Argentina in October and especially in November. As pointed out last month, a little more than six out of every ten La Niña events produces below normal rainfall in Argentina during their critical January-March time period.
• Brazil should see much more favorable weather than Argentina. It is quite often that Brazilian soybean crops are very good in the same La Niña years when Argentina has a drought problem.
• Wet weather will hamper the eastern Australian wheat harvest. Already this began in November and should continue into December; it should be bad enough to create quality concerns and possibly even some quantity issues.
• Beneficial rains will be seen in corn areas of South Africa. South African farmers produced their biggest corn crop in 30 years last year; they may make a run at that record already with the 2010/2011 crop.

Mark Haraburda

Mark Haraburda
Managing Director
Commodity Research Bureau (CRB)
312-506-8705
haraburda@crbdata.com
www.crbtrader.com

Over the past 10 years (1999 – 2009), volume in exchange-listed commodity futures markets increased 387% in the United States, according to the Futures Industry Association’s annual statistics. In fact, annual growth was greater than 20% in all but three of these years. Internationally, futures volume growth was an astounding 590%.

When Commodity Research Bureau (CRB) started collecting and distributing commodity data in 1934, we tracked just a handful of U.S. agricultural futures contracts. Today we track over 7,000 futures contracts representing over 80 derivatives exchanges from around the world, and markets ranging from energy, grains and metals to interest rates, currencies and equity indices. This does not include cash markets or options contracts, which shoot the numbers into the sky. But what is most impressive, is that within the past 10 years the industry has realized more growth in the sheer number of listed futures markets than the previous 65 years (1934 ñ 1999) combined.

Why have the commodity markets boomed over the past decade? I’ll discuss a few reasons, including the evolution of electronic trading, the development of international derivative markets, the embrace of commodities as an asset class, and, of course the volatility of commodity markets. In addition, we have also witnessed major corporate structure changes through demutualization and public offerings by many of the major derivatives exchanges.

The Evolution of Electronic Trading
The 21st century marked the emergence of electronic trading in futures markets. The previous century relied on “open-outcry” trading in pits. Unless you were on the floor of the exchange, you had to call a broker on the phone to transmit an order then wait to hear if your trade was filled, as your order transcended a sea of hand signals and shouting. In hindsight, this of course was slow and inefficient, as we now live in the days of microsecond order routing. Electronic trading gave direct, high-speed access to futures markets to every corner of the world. It enabled you to submit bigger, faster orders with the click of a mouse or the light-speed of an automated algorithm. Add connectivity to the internet and volume from electronic trading was set to flourish.

Development of International Derivative Markets
When you look at the development of international futures markets over the past 10 years it is difficult to decide where to begin. China, India, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Dubai, Thailand—take your pick. Some regions of course have facilitated tremendously more growth than others, like China, Korea, India and Brazil; nevertheless the others have benefited from the development of new financial instruments to mange price-related risks. The international growth is due to both the economic and social expansions of these countries. With the massive infrastructure needs of China and India, the need for raw commodity materials is astounding, as is the importance of managing the related price volatility. In addition, as more than a billion people from these regions advance out of poverty, the dietary demands for more proteins like beef and pork have surged, requiring more grain crops to raise cattle and hogs, as well as more petroleum for related machinery and transportation.

Commodities as an Asset Class
Many investment managers have acknowledged the benefit of adding commodity positions to a portfolio. Generally, studies highlight that these portfolios have less risk and higher returns, given the negative correlation seen within some commodity markets with other assets like stocks, bonds and real-estate. Second, with the lackluster performance of the stock market over the past decade, more money has flowed into managed futures investments offered by CTAs and CPOs. Third, commodity-based ETFs have given “everyday investors” the ability to easily invest in crude oil, gold and even corn. Many of these commodity ETFs then must maintain futures positions to provide the exposure.

Volatility of Commodity Markets
From 2000 – 2009, spot WTI crude oil fluctuated from a low of $17.48 to a high of $145.66 per barrel, a range of $128.18. The range in the prior three decades averaged just $31.39. Over the same period (2000 ñ 2009), spot gold experienced a range of $960.98 per ounce compared to an average of $405.95 over the prior three decades. Cash corn ranged from $7.32 per bushel to $1.62, a difference of $5.70, compared to an average range of $3.07 over the preceding three decades. Finally, the CRB Spot Index realized a 286 point range versus an average of 125 points during the prior three decades. It is an understatement to say the past 10 years have been volatile—it has been the most volatile period on record for the majority of commodity markets. The increased volatility has translated into a greater need for hedging and has provided more opportunities for speculation.

Corporate Structure Changes
The growth of the commodity markets was also facilitated by the fact that many of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges relinquished their non-profit, member-driven structure during this time and became competitive publicly-traded entities. These exchanges became more growth driven as they were now accountable to their shareholders. More cash was also now on hand to invest in new ventures, consolidate, invent new products, and expand futures-related marketing and education.

The turn of the century marked the start of the commodity boom.

Alan Brugler

Alan Brugler
Brugler Marketing & Management
Omaha, NE
(402) 697-3623
alanb@bruglermktg.com
www.bruglermktg.com

Producers have been, and will continue to be, interested in locking in prices for 2011 crop production. Getting control of the bushels is a good thing for most merchandising situations, but you have to hedge those bushels once you buy them. Wheat has a nice carry of +78 cents from Dec to July as this is written. However, both corn and soybeans are showing inverses, known as backwardation to those coming out of other parts of the commodities world. December 2011 corn is at a 27 cent discount to the nearby December, and a 21 cent discount to the September 2011 contract. The soybean setup is similar, with November 11 beans 77 cents below the front month January 11 contract, and 33 cents below the September.

The “normal” state of affairs is for the grain markets to have a carry, not an inverse. Premiums in the back months spread the crop out over time. Not all of it is wanted at harvest. At the moment, the problem is a lack of crop! The corn and soybeans are inverted in order to discourage old crop use and stretch the tight supplies until the new crop becomes available. USDA is projecting old crop corn ending stocks will be only 827 million bushels on September 1. That’s the tightest as a percent of use since 1995/96. Soybean stocks are currently projected at 185 million bushels, which is about 6% of use and a little looser than last year. The projected ending stocks are only 30-40 million bushels away from pipeline requirements, and a miss of less than a bushel per acre on yield could erase that cushion.

So, if things are so tight, why are the new crop contracts at a discount? Basically, end users are hoping for lower prices down the road and are not willing to make long term buying commitments at prices that are historically high. Because prices are historically high, there is also an assumption of increased acreage for 2011 in both commodities. If that acreage is realized, and yields are trendline or above, then prices would likely revert back toward the mean and the discount is justified. Those are big if’s, but during the winter they are easy to accept because no production is at risk.

Let’s get back to the original dilemma. Producers want to sell you new crop corn and beans because they are locking in higher input costs, and can lock in a margin. Where do you hedge the crop? In the new crop slot (Dec 11 corn, Nov 11 beans) even though it is at a discount and must be presumed to rally against the September at some point? Or in the September contract and hope that the market gets comfortable later on with 2011 production and builds a normal carry structure. In the latter event, September drops further than December, and as a short hedger you are happier in the September.

What does history tell us? Let’s focus on corn. That 21 cent premium of Sept/Dec is well above the average for November. About the only time that Sept/Dec spread is usually inverted that far is in August. According to MRCI data, the average Sept 11/Dec 11 spread on December 1 is about 4 cents premium the September. So when does the market start to build carry and take the September below the December? On average, that is going to happen in April. On average, the Sept/Dec goes to -50 by late August, which would be a 71 cent swing from the current +21.

The above are averages. Since old crop/new crop spreads are notoriously volatile, what are the exceptions? No sense getting needless margin calls! A look at the Sep/Dec spread history since 1976 shows only 4 instances where the spread got more than +20. These were tight stocks years like this one, including 1980/81, 1983/84, 1995/96 and this year. The 1980/81 spread peaked in December 1980 and dropped all the way until September. The 1983/84 episode was more persistent, with the inverse maintained all the way until September 1984 at 20-25 cents premium the September. The year where you REALLY didn’t want to carry those short new crop hedges in the September was 1996. In 1996, the September went to almost a 70 cent inverse in May before dropping back into the 20ís at expiration. If you had entered the short futures in the September contract around this time of year, you would have been in at around +15.

To summarize, a Sep/Dec inverse in corn isn’t unusual 9 or 10 months ahead of the expiration of the September contract. The market on average moves to a carry by April or May. In three years with short crops and tight corn ending stocks forecasts, September futures were inverted to new crop December by much larger than usual amounts. As long as 2010/11 looks like a tight ending stocks year followed by a tight new crop balance sheet, it makes more sense to be a pure hedger and leave the new crop corn hedges in the Dec. If the situation next spring shows that price rationing is working, and corn is succeeding in buying acres away from wheat, cotton and soybeans, then it might be time to roll those hedges forward into the September contract. Past performance is of course not necessarily indicative of future results.

Finally, there is also a trade axiom that is very apropos here, “Carries are finite, but inverses are infinite”. This simply says that at full carry (or contango) selling of the nearby contract will dry up because the owner of the asset is being adequately compensated to wait. That stops the premium in the back month or the discount in the front month from expanding further. However, if you are out of the commodity, the front month has no practical limit other than the destruction of the end user’s bank account. Food commodities like wheat and rice have very inelastic demand. Corn and soybeans are a little more elastic because they go through processing plants or livestock. If you have a $200-300 million plant, you aren’t going to quit running it just because the price went up a few cents for your inputs.

Justin Kelly
EHedger
Chicago , IL
312-786-4266
dfj@ehedger.com
www.ehedger.com

Volatility has been running strong since the Russian wheat drought this summer. As we approach the end of 2010, the market is having some of its biggest swings of the year. After wheat’s summer rally, corn and beans found their own bullish stories.

The latest USDA Supply and Demand report estimates corn production at 12.540 billion bu. and corn carryout at 827 million bu. Soybean production is estimated at 3.375 and carryout at 185. This doesn’t leave much room for error in the South American production and puts plenty of emphasis on next year’s acres.

The USDA will release several reports in January. We will receive the final corn and soybean production estimates for the 2010 crop year as well as quarterly stocks and winter wheat seedings. These reports will help set the stage for the 2011 season. The final production estimates will be very important as we are already faced with a tight corn carryout and only an average soybean carryout. Any reductions in production would be additional stress on the market. The quarterly stocks estimates will also be very important. The past two stocks reports have shown big surprises in inventories, especially corn, with the June report showing stocks 300 million bushels lower than estimates and the September report showing stocks 300 million higher than estimates. It is likely that the low number in the June report was a reflection of the low test weights reported for the 2009 crop and the higher usage rate needed to offset those low test weights. The high stocks number on the September report is a little trickier to explain. The best explanation I can come up with is that with a record fast harvest this fall and a high quality crop, there were a lot of “new crop” bushels that were used during this timeframe. We likely saw a lot of new crop bushels blended with some low quality “old crop” bushels for export. Since the stocks report is supposed to only count “old crop” stocks, this would explain why the old crop stocks were high. If this was the case, we should see this reflected in the January stocks figure. We also expect to have the EPA’s decision on whether or not to recommend the E15 blend for cars made between 2001 and 2007 in January.

Finally, we will get the first winter wheat acreage numbers in January. Estimates range from a 2 million acre increase to as high as a 6 million acre increase in winter wheat acres. With wheat’s insurance price protecting $7 and reports of wheat seed running low in many areas we expect acres to be towards the high end of estimates. How many acres were planted to wheat and how many bushels will be carried over from 2010 into 2011 will help the market determine how many corn and soybean acres will be needed to meet demand.

So that brings us to corn and soybean acreage for 2011. Planted corn acres in 2010 were at 88.2 million and bean acres were at 77.7 million. Assuming trend-line yields and consumption in the U.S. and normal South America weather (despite the predictions of a La Nina driven drought), corn will need an estimated 91 million acres and soybeans 77 million in 2011 to keep stocks from declining further. Given cotton’s amazing rally to all time inflation adjusted highs (surpassing Civil War prices!), we may see 1-2 million acres transition back to cotton from soybeans. With wheat expected to take about 4 million acres this fall, this leaves corn and soybeans with about 5 million less acres to fight over compared with the estimated 2.5 million more needed. So where do we find this 7.5 million extra acres? Total planted acres in 2010 were 308.6 million (this includes: corn, soybeans, winter wheat, spring wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, cotton, rice, sunseed, canola, and hay). This compares with 311.5 million in 2009 and 316.8 million in 2008. So, in the last two years we have planted (according to the USDA) about 8 million less acres. In order to meet rising demand, the market must “buy” these 8 million acres back. We do have enough acres to meet demand here in the U.S., but the question is “…at what price?”. At current prices, we should be able to buy these acres back. However, we may need to stay at these prices until we are finished planting to make sure we keep the acres. Until more is known about South American weather and until we get the January reports, it will be hard for prices to break much further (and stay there).

We are currently going through a liquidation phase in commodities including the grains. Grain prices are coming off of 2010 highs, open interest is at all-time high levels and the funds are holding record “long” positions. Between now and the end of the year we could see liquidation continue as holders of long positions take some profits as we head into the holidays. There will not be a lot of “new information” until the beginning of 2011 and we should see open interest continue to come down as we head into the end of 2010. The important timeframe for South American production really begins in January and we should see a lot of volatility as we start 2011.

Brad Foster

Brad Foster – Viafield
Grain Business Team Leader
www.viafield.com

Headquarters: Marble Rock, IA
Locations: 18 (Northern Iowa and Southern Minnesota)
Established: September 2010 (Unification of Farmers Cooperative – Marble Rock, Northeast Iowa Cooperative (Clermont) and Progressive Ag Cooperative (Northwood).

How did you get started in merchandising and what do you enjoy the most?

Long story short, I started working in the cooperative system as a summer job while going to college in 1978. Since then, I have enjoyed the challenges that the market place presents. This job forces you to never stop learning how to better understand the global economy and how it effects not only agricultural commodities, but also food, livestock, and of course energy.

How many bushels of corn, soybeans, and wheat do you handle?

With our new cooperative, Viafield, we merchandise 25-30 million bushels of corn and 6-7 million bushels of soybeans.

How many futures contracts do you trade each year?

Around 6,000 contracts of corn and 1,400 contracts of soybeans.

How do you distribute your bids to producers?

We distribute bids from our website as well as email.

Has your job become easier or more difficult with the evolution of electronic trading?

Electronic trading has given us more flexibility when purchasing grain after 1:30 pm, because we can cover those sales within 4 hours, so in my opinion it has actually made it easier.

What are the biggest challenges facing grain marketing today?

The VOLATILITY in the marketplace! And, how to position yourself.

What is the main trend your see emerging in the grain marketing industry?

More volume and less margin due to (in Iowa) the expansion of industrial use for corn (i.e., ethanol plants every 80 miles). Iowa could become an importer of corn rather than exporter, which was not even on the radar 10 years ago.

How do you see the grain elevator business changing over the next 10 years?

It is all about capturing grain at harvest to stop producers from building storage on-the-farm and by-passing the elevator. In order to accomplish this, we have to have fast receiving, and abundant storage to be able to capture carry in the market. These issues will continue to escalate over the next decade. That is why elevators continue to unify, or get purchased because of the capital expenditures needed to be competitive. The producer has a similar scenarioóyou either get larger and more efficient or you are out of the game.

CHICAGO, IL – December 8, 2010 – AgriCharts, the agricultural division of Barchart.com, Inc., which provides market data, agribusiness website hosting and technology solutions to the agricultural industry, today announced that farmdoc, a University of Illinois Extension project started in 1999, has added market data, news and weather provided by AgriCharts to its website (www.farmdoc.illinois.edu).  Visitors to the farmdoc website, which include farmers, agribusinesses and educators, now have access to the latest commodity prices, as well as an in-depth Price & Weather Center hosted by AgriCharts.  The Price & Weather Center features futures prices, charts, historical data, USDA news, reports and cash grain bids, as well as detailed weather.

“As farmdoc was one of the first agricultural information websites for farmers and agribusinesses in the U.S. Cornbelt, we are delighted to provide their users with access to additional information like markets and weather,” said Mark Haraburda, AgriCharts Managing Director.  “farmdoc is a leader in providing access to economic information and analysis for better farm management, and with this addition their users will have even more tools at their disposal,” added Haraburda.

”We are very impressed with the breadth of market and weather information available from AgriCharts.  This information is a great addition to the farmdoc website and it will be very helpful to farmers throughout the Corn Belt,” said Scott Irwin, Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing.

For more information, please visit www.farmdoc.illinois.edu and www.agricharts.com.

Contacts:

Mark Haraburda
Barchart.com, Inc. / AgriCharts
(312) 506-8705
haraburda@barchart.com

Scott Irwin
Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics
344 Mumford Hall
1301 W. Gregory Dr.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801

About AgriCharts

AgriCharts, a division of Barchart.com, Inc. which provides market data solutions to the futures, equity and foreign exchange markets, provides agricultural information and technology services to the agricultural industry.  AgriCharts’ services include agribusiness website hosting and management, market data and information, cash grain bid management, website content and real-time quote services.  AgriCharts goal is to provide successful market data, information and technology solutions to meet the requirements of today’s agricultural industry.

About farmdoc

Since 1999, farmdoc has consistently delivered unbiased and timely economic information to agricultural producers and businesses. The farmdoc website is unparalleled as a source of highly relevant, easily accessible information and analysis. And statistics show that farmdoc users agree. More than a million people visit the farmdoc website each year.

CHICAGO, IL – December 1, 2010 – AgriCharts, the agricultural division of Barchart.com, Inc., which provides market data, agribusiness website hosting and technology solutions to the agricultural industry, today announced the completion of the transition to a new cutting-edge website hosting platform for agribusinesses. After a year of development, the new platform has been implemented across AgriCharts’ client base and is now available to new clients.  The new platform takes website hosting and content management to the next level, and has made the process of building and managing a professional website for agribusinesses, like grain elevators, brokers and service providers, easier and faster than ever before.

“AgriCharts offers the latest in web technology, content and design, which has been achieved through state-of-the-art hosting facilities, constant enhancements and listening to the needs of our clients,” said Eero Pikat, President of AgriCharts.  “With our new version we offer a comprehensive system for managing your online presence that is easy-to-use, and meets both basic and advanced needs,” added Pikat.

New clients will find that the new platform provides features for simplifying the process of transitioning from a legacy website hosting platform to AgriCharts.  In addition, visitors to AgriCharts hosted websites will experience high-speed browsing and superior reliability.  The new AgriCharts platform also features a combination of performance, functionality and content enhancements.  The hosting platform has been retooled to provide faster browsing speeds and easier access to more information like detailed weather, USDA reports and local cash bids.  The user interface for managing a website was also redesigned to provide more intuitive displays and navigation.  In addition, important functionality for website managers like integrated search was added, as well as the ability to easily import files from a legacy hosting platform.

“We’ve focused a lot of attention on simplifying the process for an agribusiness to build a bigger and better website, which usually involves transitioning from an old hosting platform,” said Mark Haraburda, AgriCharts Managing Director.  “We’ve developed both technical functionality and customer service procedures for making this process easy, fast and reliable,” added Haraburda.

Additional new features include: advanced user management, additional news sources, integration of your own third-party RSS feeds, flexible file management, new weather content, detailed USDA reports, custom blog capabilities, advanced spread charts and cash grain bids by state.

For more information, please visit www.agricharts.com or call (877) 247-4394.

Contacts:

Mark Haraburda
Barchart.com, Inc. / AgriCharts
(312) 506-8705
haraburda@barchart.com

About AgriCharts

AgriCharts, a division of Barchart.com, Inc. which provides market data solutions to the futures, equity and foreign exchange markets, provides agricultural information and technology services to the agricultural industry.  AgriCharts’ services include agribusiness website hosting and management, market data and information, cash grain bid management, website content and real-time quote services.  AgriCharts goal is to provide successful market data, information and technology solutions to meet the requirements of today’s agricultural industry.