Mark's Market Talk for April 28, 2025

After a fast and furious start to planting in our area, last week ground to a halt due to rain. We have producers that are almost done planting, and we have producers that have barely started. Several are well along on both corn and bean planting as more producers’ plant beans earlier than they used to. The markets were mixed last week with July corn closing down 5 cents and December corn was down 10 cents. Meanwhile beans were higher on the week as July was up11 cents and November was 2 cents higher. Basis levels improved a little for both crops as field work has kept farmers in the field and not hauling grain. The next wave of selling will happen once the crop is planted and then the last of it will change ownership once pollination has occurred. These are not set times, but if you watch over the years most of the crop selling is done in about 4 different time periods, and these are 2 of them. While our area is progressing with planting, the south and eastern corn belts remain wet and very little has happened in those areas. It is too early to say this will change the picture a lot, however in years with low profitability potential we tend to see more prevent plant acres. We may see that this year as switching to beans does not raise your profit potential. The best we can hope for in the near turn is less rain and warmer weather so we can get our crops in the ground and get them up and growing.