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Local grain markets riding the HPAI outbreak wave

Record corn and soybean harvests are expected to help farmer profitability in Michigan despite basis issues.

Phil Tuggle with Michigan Agricultural Commodities tells Brownfield, “The price hasn’t been great per bushel, but we had extra bushels and I think that really helped the bottom line.”

Tuggle says the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak earlier in the year caused a backlog of local corn stocks because of lost demand and created the widest basis he’s seen in about a decade.

“No question did it hurt the basis, and it all came to pass right at harvest, coupled with the large crop, large acres, large bushels per acre,” he shares.

He says prices have been able to rebound with increased demand from the southeast which should keep farmers in the black to end the year.

But Tuggle says he’s concerned increased farmer selling or another HPAI surge could cause another drop in markets after the first of the year.