Marie Zeigler: We would say that flat at good levels of activity. There may be a little bit of play between the one, to some degree it depends on how much crop you assume gets sold when, so you actually could have a little bit of the 2007 slide into 2008. Some of that will be driven candidly by timing for making some assessments or some assumptions as to when people sell crops. We’re getting some very healthy outlook.
Charlie Rentschler (Wall Street Access): Can you give us some more detail on the new products that you alluded to being released here in the near future?
Marie Zeigler: We will be announcing them to our dealers starting on next week, and until that time we are not in a position to make comments about those products. There’ll be a roll-out.
Seth Weber (Banc of America): On the raw material impact you left that number the same $200 million even though the production number was going higher, the tonnage numbers going higher. Can you talk about where you might be seeing some pressure still and what might be getting there on the material side?
Marie Zeigler: We try to adjust that increase for volumes so it’s volume neutral, though we’re taking a look at had we had the same rates of spend last year as this year, so that does not take into account the fact that you’re going to have higher levels of production. Regarding where we’re seeing pressure, we said that steel up about 2% for the year, if you look at a quarter, we may have tweaked our guidance slightly down, because you’re seeing a little bit of relief on the sheet sale side on the other hand at the very margin, tyres are a little bit more costly than they were a quarter ago, but basically the year has playing out much as we had anticipated.
David Bluestein (EBS): Of the $200 million increase in your ag inventories, how much of that is Brazil, just faster than expected ramp?
Marie Zeigler: The bulk of that increase is probably more directed at North America, we’re talking about the change in the guidance from 175 to 375 up.
Robert McCarthy (Robert W Baird): Do you mind sharing with us your acreage assumptions for corn and soy beans for 2007/2008 and 2008/2009?
Marie Zeigler: We have for the 2008/2009 marketing year we will plant about 87 million acres as compared to the 92.9 million acres planted in the US and we have a yield of 156.7. For beans, we think we’ll plant about 70 million acres that’s up from 64 and of course that’s the interesting dynamic between what’s happening with corn and bean prices, with bean prices up so significantly, and a yield there of about 43.3 million.
Barry Bannister (Steifel Nicolaus): With regard to your receivable exposure in Brazil, as we bear down on our rewrite of the agricultural financing regime down there, what percent of your average owned portfolio is Brazilian receivables and could you put a dollar on that around it also?
Marie Zeigler: We are very well provisioned in the event of any potential losses. The first thing I should say is that even though farmers are not yet been required to make the 2007 payments, we’ve collected about 68% of what is already due. The credit deadline is the 31st August, but the Congress has not yet approved this proposed program so it’s expected that that deadline might slide just a little bit. In terms of what we have for our Brazilian portfolio overall, we have about $800 million in July. |