News

Specialty grain markets offer farmers lower costs, higher prices

A senior merchandiser with central Illinois-based Clarkson Grain says specialty grain markets are offering producers added income at a critical time.

In a recent FarmDoc webinar, Kelsey Graber says many farmers enter the market by transitioning to food grade or non-GMO crops.

“And the good thing about those is the seed is typically cheaper,” she says.  “Also, white corn is pretty easy to enter. You can grow it conventionally or you can grow it non-GMO. And then waxy corn. But these are kind of the easiest. You don’t really have to change a lot of your agronomic practices.”

West central Indiana farmer Jason Brier agrees and tells Brownfield he’s been steadily expanding the specialty grains in his operation.

“We went into doing some dairy non-GMO beans.”  He says, “It’s going to come out to making quite a bit more per acre. Kind of like my waxy corn, the seeds a little cheaper and then you get a better price for it.”

Graber says there could be some yield drag compared to conventional crops, but the premiums are still attractive.

“Premiums for these are usually somewhere between 40 cents to somewhere between a dollar and $2 over the board of trade,” she says.

She says producers interested in exploring specialty grain markets should start making plans now for the 2027 crop year.