McLean County Farm Bureau

FarmDoc Daily

• Post-Harvest Grain Marketing in a Low-Price Environment
  Over the summer of 2024, corn and soybean futures markets saw both major price declines and increases in calendar spreads. The article evaluates current futures spreads, comparing them to storage costs, and provides insights on when storing crops may be profitable. It emphasizes the importance of considering both physical storage costs and opportunity costs when […]
• Trends in Corn Plant Populations
  Corn plant populations increased approximately 1% per year for Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana from 1996 to 2023. For Illinois, the state with highest projected plant population in 2024, corn plant population increased from 24,200 plants per acre in 1996 to 32,400 per acre in 2023. A vast majority of the change in seed costs since […]
• A Tale of Two Oilseeds: Soybean Saga, Part 2
  Peanuts and soybeans were added to farm programs by Congress in the 2002 Farm Bill but Congressional decisions in policy design for farm program payments have made peanut base acres much more valuable than soybean base acres. If the average payment each year for soybean base and peanut base were totaled (2002 to 2022), each […]