GRAIN PRICE INCREASE IS CAUSING STRESS TO SOME

(Lincoln Journal Star/JournalStar.com) -- JournalStar.com reports that "worries about planting delays in Illinois and points farther east helped push corn past $4 a bushel in cash markets Monday for the first time since the 2008 harvest," as soybean prices "are approaching $12 a bushel." The price volatility isn't welcomed by grain elevator managers, who "had to shell out huge sums a year ago to hedge their marketing positions on the Chicago Board of Trade," or livestock producers, who depend heavily on corn and soybeans as a feed source. But the story notes that "Lincoln-area farmer Jim Stewart, who raises soybeans and no livestock, feels good about his choices in early June. ... 'Let’s just say I’m starting to sell now,' he said."

See the story at <http://journalstar.com/articles/2009/06/04/news/local/doc4a26f4ad672c1986032804.txt>

GRAIN PROCESSORS WANT MORE CRP ACRES IN PRODUCTION

(Brownfield Network) -- The nation’s grain buyers and processors want more CRP acres returned to production. Randy Gordon of the National Grain and Feed Association says the need for grain-based products continues to grow, both in the U.S. and around the world. But he explains that most of the growth in acreage has been outside of the U.S. in the past eight years. “(The U.S. has) only increased our acreage base by about a million acres since 2008, whereas in South America they’ve increased theirs by over 58 million acres,” Gordon says. Gordon says the Grain and Feed Association will ask the new Obama administration to allow farmers to pull CRP acres back into production without paying a hefty penalty, and that there are a number of acres in CRP that can be farmed in an environmentally sustainable way.