FEB 5

JAN 29

1198

194

698

The South Dakota average price for corn late last week was $2.84 per bushel, 5 cents lower than a week ago.

Corn futures started the week gaining nearly ten cents on Monday and Tuesday thanks to better than expected export inspection numbers and support from outside markets. There was some thought that the losses of recent weeks was overdone so some of the gains were attributed to that idea. However, Wednesday brought losses of 10 to 12 cents thanks to a stronger dollar and weaker crude oil and gold. With all of those day to day influences, the longer term challenge facing corn futures is the record setting corn crop of 2009 and the corresponding growth of potential carryover supplies. The real challenge facing the cash market on the other hand is the very real potential of a record setting corn crop being a potentially poor quality crop. The futures market bases its price on contract specifications that call for a specific grain quality. As a result, it falls on the shoulders of the cash market to deal with the price discounts for moisture and quality.

It is vitally important to spend the time and money you have to spend to maintain or improve the quality of corn you have in storage. The most critical factor will be moisture content. Even in more normal years when we generally don’t have much of a problem with high moisture corn going bad while in storage, there are always those stories of someone who had a bin of corn heat up and lose condition due to excess moisture content. This year however, higher than normal moisture content in corn is a problem throughout the corn belt so anything you can do to make sure your corn is as near perfect as can be could give you the edge on a better basis bid for your corn if it is in better condition.

USDA’s monthly supply and demand numbers from the most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report are summarized in a file that is linked below. For complete details, simply click on the link entitled, “Corn Supply and Demand.”

Corn basis data and cash corn price data for various regions of South Dakota is available by connecting with a link at the bottom of this page. To access the charts showing the corn basis and cash prices for your region of the state, just click on the link entitled “Cash corn price and basis charts”. This basis information is compiled by the Economics Department at South Dakota State University.

For more information:
Economics Department website:  http://econ.sdstate.edu/
      under the Extension tab click on Current Market Analysis   
Extension Service website:  http://sdces.sdstate.edu/
     click on the Farm Management/Marketing tab
or contact Mr May at  alan.may@sdstate.edu