STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, December 14, 2011

[xchrom]

16. Buffett’s Surging Silo Sales Boosting Grain Costs for Cargill: Commodities

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/buffett-s-surging-silo-sales-boosting-grain-costs-for-cargill-commodities.html

In a year of record agricultural earnings in the U.S., Steve Ruh spent a chunk of his income to build what’s become an increasingly common sight at farms across the Midwest -- grain storage bins.

The Illinois corn grower started with 250,000 bushels (2 million gallons) of storage capacity in 2009 and added 100,000 this year to avoid wasting precious harvest time in line at grain elevators. He can now hold crops in gluts, hoping to sell at higher prices when grain is scarcer, and is storing half the 400,000-bushel corn crop this season at his farm in Sugar Grove.

“I like the control,” said the 42-year-old, who works 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) of corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa. “This allows me to market 12 months out of the year instead of half that time.”

Corn-belt farmers like Ruh have pushed up U.S. oilseed and grain storage capacity to the highest in two decades, enriching bin makers from GSI Holdings Corp. to Brock Grain Systems, which is controlled by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., while raising costs for Cargill Inc. and other grain traders.