Grain Marketing Education, News & Strategies

Tidbits Yield reports from Stan just north of Central Illinois: “Yield reports (both from neighbors and my fields): Corn yield is about 10-12% lower than last year. Fields without pattern tile or where water runs across vary even more. Bean yields are about even with last year, or maybe just a tad lower. But again, wide variation for those without good drainage; too much water at times for both corn and beans, and then too hot and dry for too long for much of July into early

Tidbits Grain Inventories: The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the counter of everything agriculture in the USA. NASS surveyed farmers and commercial grain handlers to estimate 1 September grain and oilseed inventories. NASS put corn stocks at 2,095 million bushels. Private analysts surveyed by Reuters averaged 1,918 million, with the highest estimate at 2,005 million and the lowest at 1,843 million bushels. NASS said feed use was not nearly as much

Tidbits Brazilian farmers had planted 1.2% of the expected area for their 2026/27 soybean crop, ahead of last year’s pace. First corn crop planting reached 27% in the center-south region, compared with 22% a week earlier and 25% a year ago. Despite the strong pace, low temperatures have constrained progress in some areas, with isolated corn fields hit by frost over the past two weeks, AgRural said. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ​said on Monday that Uruguay had

Tidbits The Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision at 1 PM Central Time today. The market expects a quarter percent point increase. Did China suspend the tariffs on U.S. soybeans? Around 11 AM Central time yesterday a marketing service reported China had lifted the tariff on U.S. beans. However, we could find no confirmation of such action. We do expect that will be one of the positive things that will be announced next week when China’s President Xi comes t

Tidbits Friday's key reversal on the soybeans (new contract high followed by a close lower than the previous day's low) was negated by yesterday's higher close. As a general rule, a lack of follow through on the next trading day is needed to confirm a technical trend change. Fuel & Fertilizer: Diesel prices are climbing fast, and farmers are feeling it in real time. U.S. diesel prices have surged 60% since the start of the war in Iran. With another 30¢ jump in just a week, th

Tidbits Iran & Oil: American forces resumed strikes against Iran yesterday, U.S. Central Command has said. In response, Iran launched attacks at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Jordan, according to local state media and the Jordanian Armed Forces. Attacks were also reported in Kuwait and Bahrain. Crude oil prices have surged again.

Tidbits Brazil: Roraima is a small state in the far north of Brazil bordering Venezuela to the north and Guyana to the east. It is north of the Amazon River and a bit north of the Equator. Farmers plant corn and beans in March or April and harvest in September. El Niño brings drier weather to Roraima just as it does to Central Brazil where the majority of Brazil’s corn, beans, and cotton are grown. Early harvest has begun. Some producers are reporting the loss of entire crops

Tidbits Weekend Comments from AgrInvest Commodities in Brazil: The fertilizer market ended the week with strong downward pressure on nitrogen fertilizers, especially after the results of the Indian tender and the expansion of urea export quotas by China. Urea fell to the US$410–415/t CFR Brazil range, approaching the year's lows and increasing expectations of a demand recovery if prices break the US$400/t level. Ammonium sulfate followed the downward trend, giving back much

Tidbits Soybeans and wheat held up well yesterday after Wednesday’s gains, but corn gave back almost half of Wednesday’s gains despite some Wednesday reports that a derecho may have extended from South Dakota to Virginia. While there was a lot of wind and water damage to crops and buildings, when the sun came up Thursday, the corn crop was not damaged nearly as bad as some analysts suggested. The bullish news for corn that is not going to go away is that both the old and new

S&D The USDA will issue its August S&D on Wednesday. This is the first 2026 crop production report in which yields will not be accounting estimates based upon unknown assumptions. While the yield numbers will not be based on field survey results, the yield numbers will be based on survey reports from approximately 15,000 farmers across the country of their individual crop conditions, expectations, and projected yields based on what they see in their fields at the beginning of

Tidbits Weather: Crop Prophet reported yesterday afternoon all three major forecast models place the Western Corn Belt on the warmer and drier side of normal through early August. Russian wheat production estimate was reduced by SovEcon by 0.6 million to 88.3 million mts. This is now just below the USDA’s forecast of 88.5 million mts. Brazil’s CONAB estimated 97% of Brazil’s wheat area has been planted as of July 19, matching the five-year average. CONAB is estimating Brazil’

Tidbits Weather: Contrary to most private forecasts, the National Weather Service and 247AG predicted Saturday evening that extreme heat will return next weekend to the Central and Western Corn Belt with normal rainfall amounts. Ukraine: There are rumors that corn and wheat exporters in Ukraine will declare force majeure in Ukraine due to war damage to their grain handling equipment. “Force majeure” is a term used in contracts allowing either party to legally break th

Tidbits President Donald Trump delivered a speech to the nation yesterday from the White House with a focus on the 2020 election. He is declassifying documents that he says will show interference by China in the 2020 election. Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that there was widespread election fraud six years ago when he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump again pushed for Congress to pass legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and

Tidbits Iran: President Trump will address the nation tomorrow evening to explain his Iran plan. The U.S. and Iran conducted military strikes with each other overnight. Trump said the U.S. military will continue to strike Iran in the coming days and into next week. Brazil: CONAB raised its 2025/26 Brazilian soybean production estimate a bit to 180.57 million mts, from 180.25 million mts previously. They raised their Brazilian corn production forecast 1% to 141.7 million mts.

Tidbits Super Typhoon Bavi’s near world record low barometric pressure captured the world headlines Monday morning as weather services connected the low pressure to the strong El Niño and global warming. Then pointed out the El Niño will continue to strengthen into December and January and exaggerated the potential worldwide crop production problems. The strength at the CBOT yesterday was all because of the “hype” and not because of any serious immediate crop problems. There

Tidbits Red Tape Removed: According to Brazil’s National Supply Company (Conab, a government agency), annual grain production over the past 10 years has grown by an average of nearly 7%, while storage capacity has increased only 2.4%. Currently, Brazil has the capacity to store approximately 60% to 63% of its annual grain production, more than 130 million mts less than needed. That is why their cash prices are so low during harvest; there just is no place to put the grain exc

Tidbits Flash Sale: Yesterday, the USDA reported sales of 120,000 mts of old crop corn to unknown destinations. Yesterday’s corn market action was not nearly as bullish as we hoped after losing 38¢ in 13 days, a “hook reversal” on Monday, the crop ratings after the close Monday afternoon were not as good as the market expected, and another corn flash sale yesterday morning. None-the-less, there were some positive indicators yesterday for the corn market: The lead futures mont

Tidbits Brazilian AgrInvest Commodities reported on 6 June: The recent highlight is the change in the exchange rate, which has gained momentum and become the main variable of attention. The appreciation of the dollar improves export parity and may limit further declines in the domestic market, especially if combined with possible reactions in Chicago, firmer oil prices, or weather risks in the US. Thus, although the current scenario is still one of adjustment, the market is o

Tidbits U.S. Crops: On this date in 2018, December corn futures made its high at $4.29. Its low was made on 18 September at $3.42. Four of the last six years, December corn made its high for the year before this date. Parts of the Eastern Corn Belt received more than 3 inches (76 mm) in the 36 hours ending yesterday at midnight. University of Illinois ag economists report soybeans have turned profitable for Illinois farmers while corn remains in the red. Dr. Michael Cor

Tidbits After corn and beans were up four consecutive days ending Wednesday and wheat up three consecutive days ending on Tuesday after a very bullish wheat news from USDA, all three markets were due for a correction (profit taking) yesterday. Wheat also had more serious technical and seasonal price trend reasons to fall sharply. Wednesday evening, corn, beans and KC wheat trended slightly higher until about 1 AM but failed to come close to Wednesday highs awaiting news from