WHERE DOES YOUR
CORN GO
FROM THE ELEVATOR?
T
By Lindsey Bowers
his month I’ve been evaluating
our sales and studying volumes sold
to different markets. Our grain sorghum
year in and year out is sold at the Port of Houston or
Corpus Christi for export. The three main buyers in the
past have been Louis Dreyfus, Cargill and ADM. This year, a major
change of hands is occurring as Lansing now has the contract at the
Port of Houston instead of Louis Dreyfus. However, Lansing has
been trading in our area for the last five years. We have since estab-
lished a relationship and are not anticipating this to greatly change
the dynamics. While grain sorghum markets are very predictable in
respect to the players, corn markets are not. This year, the market for
our corn took an unprecedented turn, and United Ag itself became
our number ONE customer. We moved more than a million bushels
through the bagging plant and mixing plant this past year. While
we were our number one customer, we were not our number one
market. The chart below is a general breakdown of primary markets,
and though we aren’t always exactly sure of the end user, this should
be fairly representative of where last year’s corn crop ended up. The
coming year is expected to present many unique challenges. From
our sur veys, we estimate grain (corn and grain sorghum combined)
acres to be down 30 percent to 35 percent, and with the intense dry
spell the crop endured we expect yields to be below average com-
pared to the above average crop last year. From what I hear, this de-
scribes our area and south to the Rio Grande Valley. The demand for
corn in south Texas has not changed much from the previous year,
but demand for grain sorghum remains questionable. At the time
I am writing this article, I only know of two ships sold. With all of
these factors considered, it leads me to believe that we will become a
corn deficit area this year and will have to wait and see what happens
with grain sorghum.
UA its own
best customer
thanks to
bagging plant
& mixing plant
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