Mark's Market Talk for August 25, 2025

Corn and beans were both higher last week with December corn closing 6 higher and November beans were 16 cents higher. Some of the push came from a mid-week announcement that the EPA was planning to deny most of the small refinery exemptions for the RFS. However, on Friday we learned that some exemptions were granted so this story still has some legs to it. A bigger story was the release of the annual Pro Farmer crop tour results which were released after the markets closed Friday. Their national corn yield came in at 182.7 versus the 188.8 the USDA used in their August report. The tour found a large amount of disease in many cornfields. Southern rust was seen in most areas and was extreme in some of the Iowa check fields. The report lowered the average Iowa yield almost 20 bushels from the high yield the USDA had. They found a fair amount of tar spot in Illinois which also lowered their yield some. The USDA uses farmer surveys for their report and from the road our crops look great. Pro Farmer sends people into fields and some of them said from the road their check fields looked fantastic while they found disease issues once they entered the fields. On the beans they came very close to matching the USDA as they came up with a national average bean yield of 53, the USDA was 53.6. Pod counts in several states were record high. Moisture was good in most areas meaning not everyone will need a late season rain to finish the crop.

By now most of you know that the CEO of Smith Fertilizer and Grain, Max Smith, passed away on August 16^th. Max, along with his parents and brother John started SFG in the 70's. Max was the business icon of the group and was always thinking outside of the box. He was not afraid to try new things that would bring value to their customers’ operations. He was known statewide as he helped lead organizations such as the Iowa Corn Growers and The Agribusiness Association of Iowa. I was fortunate to have worked with Max for 20 years. I always appreciated his ability to get employees involved in the workings of the company. He wanted all of us to be successful in our jobs and our lives. He was truly a hands-on leader who was on duty at all times.

Max left SFG in very good hands. Last year he named his son Kyle as President of the company. Sharon Smith along with Kyle’s brothers Jason and Charles will make up the management team. They along with some key employees will ensure that Smith Fertilizer and Grain will continue to be the progressive company you have come to know. We will continue to honor our motto, “Service is our specialty!”.