Written by: Roger McEowen, Leonard Dolezal Professor in Agricultural Law & Director of the ISU Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, November 6, 2008

VeraSun Energy and its 24 subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 31, 2008 in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.  The bankruptcy filing raises numerous questions for farmers and grain elevators that have legal relationships with VeraSun. VeraSun operates 17 ethanol plants eight states:

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Hilton Coliseum
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

The Agribusiness Expo presents a comprehensive collection of new and innovative products covering all facets of the agribusiness industry.  A wide variety of exhibitors will be present for this year's Expo, held in Hilton Coliseum.

Click here to view the agenda and registration materials for the 2008 EXPO.

By Mike Boehlje and Chris Hurt

Agriculture has been on a roll in recent years.  Record high grain prices stimulated record high incomes and surging land values increased wealth.  Crop producers overall were doing well as the prices of their crops outpaced rising input costs.  Agribusinesses that provided cropping inputs have generally benefited as well.  But the current financial crisis has been a hard and swift change for crop farmers.  In just 14 trading days between September 26 and October 16, futures prices for corn lost 30%, soybeans 26%, and wheat 23%.  Ethanol prices-a critical market for corn-fell by 24% during that period. 

To read the entire article Assessing the Financial Crisis and its Impact on Agriculture click here.

Issued by Darrel Good, Extension Economist, University of Illinois

Corn and soybean prices have been pummeled by negative fundamental news since early September.  In late June, we were asking if the highs were near, now the question is whether the lows are near.

The latest round of negative information was provided by the USDA's October Crop Production report.  For soybeans, that report contained a 2008 production forecast of 2.983 billion bushels, 49 million larger than the September forecast and 63 million larger than the average pre-report guess.  In spite of a 3 bushel   increase in the forecast of the Illinois average yield, the forecast of the U.S. average yield, at 39.5 bushels, was 0.5 bushels below the September forecast.  

Name                                      Position                                          Company

Lynn Heideman              Location Leader                             Ag Partners LLC

Michael Orr                      Operations Manager                      Pattison Bros

James Russmann        Agronomy Manager                        Farm Service Company

Jason Schwenneker     Commodity Risk Consultant        Growmark/Mid-Co Commodities

Jacob  Thomsen            Sales Agronomist                           Eldon C. Stutsman, Inc.