Stuff I heard...

Over the roar at the Trade Show at the Commodity Classic. Whoa - they'll have to start serving decaf to this crowd before it gets untidy. I've been to several hundred Commodity Classics and this is the rowdiest by far.

Could it be the continuing rally made possible by yours truly?

Anyhoo, things I took aboard.

• Some ground within a hundred miles of me sold for $8800. That's for every single acre.
• I'm not quite the fool I thought I was for renegotiating my contracts this year for what seemed like astronomical rents at the time.
• Some students at UM are live blogging the Classic. Find Whitney's blog here.

• No, I don't know if she has a boyfriend. I'm just glad we had sons, because I'm pretty sure this type of offspring would be beyond my management expertise.
• I talked with the head of global commerce for Monsanto. Halfway through our discussion it hit me how much both of us has at risk from the rising tide of protectionism. I'll post more about this later, but I'm dismayed by sentiments from both sides of the aisle about NAFTA and free trade in general.
• This is the largest Classic ever, which is amazing since Las Vegas seems to bring out the biggest crowds.
• I saw my sprayer. I just traded for the exact sprayer sitting on the display floor. And the pathetic reason why I traded a 2005 model with 207 hours and no problems? To get a seat in the cab for my grandson, now that he is back on the farm. Sometimes you have to know what values to put on things.
  

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• I heard three stories about small elevators on the brink of something not very good. We could be heading for a straight cash market for many grain originators.
• I really think producers are missing something important (and I don't mean me) when they don't take the chance to attend meetings like this. I learn more about the state of our business sector in two days here than two weeks at the computer.
  

More later. I think I heard a wine cork popped.

Hey - it's an agricultural product. In fact, one of our major ag exports.