More New Life

Partners & Friends,

Our daughter Lindsay birthed her fourth child on January 17th--Marguerite Esther. Margo will join her three brothers in a very busy household. We were at the hospital in the waiting room at delivery time. With every new birth I am so amazed at the wonder and perfection of these precious babies. And I stand in awe of a God who designed and fit this creation together so well!

There has been some great moonlight to work by these last few weeks. Before the storm came last week we were putting tile in the ground. We are working on wet areas that had to be replanted this past spring. We also got a call from one seed company to ship one of the varieties of seed beans. So we were loading trucks in the early morning moonlight. Elsewhere we are finishing up year-end activities in the office, getting financial information together for lenders and tax preparers, ordering seed and chemicals for 2020, and attending meetings to help us better manage the business. This is our chance during the year to catch up, clean out, and get reorganized and ready to work with Mother Nature for the next year.

Great news of the trade agreement signing last week. The market reaction was another, “Buy the rumor; sell the fact.” Some expect the Chinese to announce they are in the market so the price will be more expensive. Those people are not going to show their hand to make their food more expensive! Word of a new virus in China is kind of scary, too. With the globalization of the world it will be very hard to contain things like this. The president spoke at the AFBF annual meeting for the third year in a row. Farmer support seems to be at an all time high. The cold weather doesn't seem like it will last too long to really hamper grain movement this month. We are preparing for a summer shutdown of the Illinois river for some overdue maintenance of seven locks and dams. That means getting the grain we’ve sold to the river terminals delivered sooner rather than later. 

Family is well. This is the season when it seems schoolwork will never end. A bit of winter time off planned and some fun short trips to break up the monotony. 

Fall 2020 prices:

Corn 3.72

Soybeans 9.13

Steve