Maneuvering the Current Corn Market

A University of Minnesota ag economist says pre-harvest bottom in a corn market is not uncommon, but Ed Usset that cautions the market may dip again if yields are closer to the August USDA crop production report estimates.

“It's not uncommon to have a bottom in the corn market before harvest. We had it in August last year. It wouldn't be unusual, but I think this is going to be, end up being a realizing market. And what I mean by that is we seem to have had a bottom. That's good, but if we start harvesting this corn crop and see something that is actually closer to the USDA August numbers of 188.8 bushels per acre, we could dip back down and have a late low, but if we find something more like the Pro Farmer numbers, we may have already set our Low.”

However, that does not mean that the market will rise. In fact, use that says he thinks producers should consider locking in some of the carry in the market today. The easiest way to manage this is to store grain on the farm and make a cash sale now for delivery sometime next year,

“Before I think about unpriced grain in the bin, take a good hard look at the size of the carries.”

Carry is the difference between today's cash price and a cash price for delivery in the future.