Mark's Market Talk for May 27, 2025

Memorial Day has come and gone, we finally got some decent rain, the crop is all but planted in our area, everything is good, right? It depends on who you talk to. Most of the crops in our area went in the ground in good shape and we have not heard of many emergence issues. Other parts of the state that had some hard rain 2 weeks ago did some replanting. The near-term forecasts appear non-threatening currently. Lots can happen between now and harvest, but most of us can say the crops are off to a good start. We saw some rebound in the markets last week as July corn was 16 cents higher, and the December contract gained 15 cents. July beans were 10 cents higher, and November ended the week 15 cents higher. New crop grain is still underpriced to get many takers. We are still below most producers’ break evens, so they are hesitant to book any sales. Unfortunately, we are not competitive in the world market right now. South America seems willing to sell grain at whatever the world will offer. In many places down there, they have limited storage options, so their grain needs to move sooner than later. The advantage we have in this country is our ability to store a large part of our crop and keep it in good condition. Sometimes other countries use that to their advantage knowing they can come to us and buy good grain all year long and buy some lower quality grain when they are hand to mouth. Let’s hope we continue last week’s bounce in this holiday shortened week.