VeraSun Accumulator Contracts Backfired

We historically have employed short financial positions to hedge our physical purchases of corn. In July 2008, after corn prices had risen from approximately $6.00 per bushel at the end of May 2008 to almost $8.00 per bushel due to extraordinary weather conditions in the Midwest and broader commodity market trends, we chose to exit our short financial positions in corn to mitigate what we considered to be unacceptable margin exposure in our futures positions. Upon termination of these short financial positions, we effectively priced our corresponding physical purchases of corn at the then-current market price, which proved to be significantly higher than today’s market prices for corn. In addition, based on market forecasts that corn prices would continue to rise, we entered into a number of “accumulator” contracts relative to corn requirements for the third and fourth quarters that, in each case, allowed us to purchase a specified volume of corn at prices below then-prevailing market rates, but also required us to purchase that same volume of corn (in addition to the initial purchase) at one or more lower prices per bushel should market prices decline to or below those lower levels over the duration of the contract. Shortly thereafter, corn prices commenced a sharp decline from almost $8.00 per bushel to a low of under $5.00 per bushel in mid-August 2008. As a result, we were required under the accumulator contracts to purchase additional amounts of corn at prices that proved to be higher than prevailing market prices. As a result of these various hedge positions, as well as the difficult operating environment, we expect to record average corn prices of between $6.75 and $7.00 per bushel during the third quarter of 2008. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1343202/000119312508196724/d8k.htm