The Andersons, announcing a 37% slide in earnings, said it was to cease making spring forecasts of its full year results after the recession added to the difficulty of making accurate predictions.

However, relief that the company had not slid into a loss sent its shares nearly 18% higher their peak on Thursday.

The grain elevator-to-rail wagon group said that "numerous factors", beside the economic downturn, influenced its performance, including weather, crop prices and the performance of its investments in three ethanol plants.

"After much consideration, we have decided to discontinue our practice of giving earnings guidance at this time," Mike Anderson, the Andersons' chief executive, said.

Last year, the group revised its earnings guidance four times –twice up and twice down. Its actual 2008 earnings figure of $3.75 per share fell within the initial guidance range of $3.65-4.00 a share issued last May.

Elevators on the up

In the latest quarter, the Andersons' earnings slid to $4.95m, or $0.27 a share, on revenues down 2.2% at $697m.

A record quarter in cereals storage helped the group's grain and ethanol division report operating profits jump 160% at $5.7m.

However, profits in the fertilizer unit dropped 73% to $2.0m, thanks to a 15% slide in like-for-like sales, by volume, and a writedown in the value of inventories.

A double-digit decline in rail freight traffic sent profits at the Rail unit plunging to $900,000 from $6.4m a year before.

'Feel good'

Nonetheless, the data was well received on Wall Street, where analysts had been expecting the Andersons to report a loss of 3.3 cents a share, according to Reuters.

Mr Anderson said:"Considering the state of the economy we feel good about our overall performance so far this year.

"We are especially thankful for the diversity of our business units, as this purposeful diversification has positioned us to remain a strong and profitable company during uncertain economic times."