Grain piling up outside at some Midwest elevators
22 October 2024
3 minute learn
US farmers are harvesting two of the most important corn and soybean crops in historical past on the quickest tempo in years, straining their bodily capabilities and their grain storage capability, reported Reuters.
The large inflow of crops is testing growers who’re already grappling with grain costs close to four-year lows, stiff competitors for international export gross sales and farm incomes which might be down 23% from a document excessive simply two years in the past.
Many Midwestern farmers nonetheless have grain left in storage from 2023, after they refused to promote a document corn crop as a result of low costs. Now, dry climate is accelerating this 12 months’s harvests and forcing grain handlers in some areas to retailer corn outdoors, somewhat than in storage bins.
“It has been quick and livid,” Brent Johnson, a corn and soybean farmer in Ashland, Illinois, mentioned of harvesting.
Weeks of heat and dry climate throughout the Corn Belt this autumn sped up crop maturity and enabled combines to maintain rolling. Consequently, farmers harvested 47% of the nation’s second greatest corn crop in historical past by Oct. 13, topping the five-year common of 39%, in keeping with US knowledge.
The harvest of the record-large soybean crop was 67% full by Oct. 13, the quickest tempo since 2012, when a significant drought restricted manufacturing.
Jeff O’Connor, who grows corn and soybeans close to Kankakee, Illinois, mentioned his staff solely had a few half-days off to relaxation prior to now month as a result of fast harvesting.
“My individuals and gear would really like a break,” he mentioned.
As soy harvesting winds down, farmers are shifting on to corn, which usually yields greater than thrice as a lot grain per acre than soybeans. At some Midwest elevators, the circulation of corn from the fields has been filling up storage, inflicting lengthy strains of vehicles ready to dump their hundreds.
In Shell Rock, Iowa, ethanol producer POET is storing corn on the bottom, native farmer Caleb Hamer mentioned, including that he dumped a few of his harvest on a pile that regarded prefer it held 1.5 million bushels.
“We’re harvesting a crop too quick for our storage infrastructure. That is the most important factor,” mentioned Chad Henderson, founding father of Wisconsin-based Prime Agricultural Consultants.
Fast harvesting and localized storage squeezes are forcing farmers to contemplate promoting some crops for lower than it value to provide them. But corn futures costs are signaling they need to maintain the grain for just a few months, if potential.
On the Chicago Board of Commerce, benchmark December corn futures have been buying and selling at a roughly 22-cent low cost to the Might 2025 contract. Which means farmers might earn 22 cents a bushel by promoting their corn for deferred supply in Might.
Nonetheless, growers shouldn’t retailer their harvest with out reserving any gross sales and danger a deeper market downturn, CoBank economist Tanner Ehmke mentioned.
Chris Gibbs, who grows corn and soybeans in Ohio, mentioned he has not made any advance offers to promote his autumn harvests for the primary time in 48 years of farming.
“My advertising plan is to maintain my head down and watch for a chance to return alongside, which is a really poor plan,” Gibbs mentioned.
