Week 30, 2024

Here are the University of Illinois Extension | WILLAg.org highlights for the work week ending Friday, July 26, 2024. 

WILLAg.org Closing Market Report
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Monday we heard from Iowa State University agricultural economist Chad Hart. He remains concerned about old and new crop prices. Particularly as it relates to how the remaining old crop corn supplies owned by farmers will blunt pre-harvest price rallies. 

Tuesday Kansas State University ag economist Dan O’Brien discussed the supply and demand tables he has been sharing with growers in his state. These include yield and price probabilities.

Wednesday we heard from market analyst Greg Johnson, ILLINOIS ag economist Gary Schnitkey, and meteorolgist Drew Lerner. Greg, an elevator manager, discussed old and new crop sales and USDA’s current $11.20 season’s average 2024/25 soybean cash price. Gary explored how well (or in this case not so well) the crop insurance SCO and ECO options have performed in the Midwest (read more). 

Thursday the program revisited the SCO/ECO conversation with UofI’s Gary Schnitkey with a pointed policy twist as legislators work through possible updates of the crop insurance program in the new farm bill. The proposed SCO changes will have marginal impacts on farmer well-being in areas of lower yield risk and have unclear policy justifications compared to more direct possibilities for improving the intended performance of crop insurance programs (read more). 

Schnitkey produced a farmdoc video which doesn’t pull punches related to the current design of the whole of the crop insurance program and how farmers in the Corn Belt are subsidizing the premiums of farmers in other parts of the nation.

Thursday’s Closing Market Report also included information from ILLINOIS Extension field crops entomologist Nick Seiter. The corn leaf aphid has become an issue, and Seiter details when and for what reasons a farmer might consider applying a rescue treatment.

Friday USDA State Statistician for Illinois Mark Schleusener told us where funding would be coming from this growing season to collect critical countywide crops data. Federal budget constraints caused USDA to stop this reporting function nationwide. The farmdoc team and the crop insurance industry utilize the data and have been concerned.

Commodity Week was recorded in Augusta, Illinois this week. The panelists included Matt Bennett and Curt Kimmel from AgMarket.net and Merrill Crowley of AgTraderTalk.com. This weekly review of the commodity markets from WILLAg.org was included in the Illinois Soybean Association’s western Illinois Tailgate Talk. We’re always open to taking our marketing panels on the road. Don’t hesitate to contact us (tgleason@illinois.edu) if you’d like to include one in your meeting schedule.