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Soybean farmers welcome trade relief, but continue to push for markets

Southwestern Indiana farmer Joe Steinkamp says the trade relief package couldn’t have come at a better time for soybean farmers.

The USDA has set the payment rate for soybeans at $1.65 per bushel, with half of the payment made at harvest.

“I looked at my Evansville Indiana Ohio River basis bid for fall delivery soybeans and today they’re at 70 cents under,” he says. “I’m going to be taking it on the chin that even if I had a good futures price, by the time you take 70 cents off of it, it’s really going to hurt us.”

But he tells Brownfield soybean farmers would still like to see the administration focus on long-term market opportunities, not short-term relief.

“We need to export soybeans or we’re going to have way over production and an increasing balance in the U.S. that’s going to depress prices,” he says.

The USDA has raised its estimate for soybean production this fall to 4.6 billion bushels and reduced its estimate for soybean exports in the 2018-2019 marketing year by 230 million bushels.

Audio: Joe Steinkamp, Indiana farmer