Mark's Market Talk for September 8, 2025

Corn harvest has begun east of us as the lines into Eddyville grew quite long late last week. The amount of southern rust has people concerned and they are cutting their losses and harvesting on the early side. It appears that applying a corn fungicide paid a big dividend this year. We are seeing some rust in treated fields, but the damage is far worse in untreated fields. Talking with people around the state, this seems to be a problem almost everywhere. It is worse on low lying ground that held the humidity for longer periods of time this summer. Talk is there are troubled areas in other states due to weather and disease so many think the USDA has set their corn yield too high and will need to lower it. There is a report out this Friday and though they may lower it a small amount, the real corrections will probably come in the October and December reports. Corn has rallied some since the August low, but not enough to get really excited about. Last week December corn lost 2 cents. November beans lost 27 cents last week as China is still not buying any US beans. There have been reports that some North Central plains elevators will not be accepting beans this fall because they don’t have a market for them. If you remember back 10 plus years they didn’t raise many beans in the Dakotas due to the lack of a market. Then a port was enlarged in the Pacific Northwest that is known as the PNW. The beans are shipped there by train and loaded on ships that are headed to China. This worked well until the Chinese market dried up, so those areas are left without a market once again. Please remember to be safe as we head into harvest. Everyone has a lot on their minds, so it is easy to get stressed out. One misstep can lead to a serious injury or worse.