News

Analyst says corn, soybean rally could improve farm margins

A grains and oil seeds analyst says recent strength in corn and soybean futures could give farmers a chance to improve their bottom lines.  

Bree Baatz with Terrain says the counter-seasonal price rally provides producers with some breathing room this fall. “I would be taking a good look at $5.50 corn and $5.30 corn. If you’re in the black, that’s worth considering. On the soybean side, we’re about $3 above where we started the year.”

She tells Brownfield, “Because of these geopolitical outside factors, that’s really bulled up the market and getting everybody to realize that supplies are going to be tighter. Because for soybeans, we have increased demand and corn the supply side is down, but that demand is likely to continue to keep pace as it did with old crop.”

Baatz says she doesn’t expect on-farm storage to be a widespread issue this fall. “Because we had lower prices earlier in the year, demand has been doing the heavy lifting earlier specifically for corn. As we head to new crop, If we have less supplies, I think the market is going to grind through that.”

She says this month’s quarterly stocks report from USDA will provide more insight into how much grain farmers have on hand.