Tough Week For Corn and Beans Again

We have been waiting a long time for China to buy corn and they did buy a lot last week but it did not seem to help corn prices at all. Traders are concerned with the fallout of collapsing ethanol demand for corn and liquidation of livestock because those prices are dropping too. Since the beginning of January corn futures prices have dropper $.70 cents a bushel and the basis has widened by about $.30 cents. That means cash prices paid to farmers have dropped about a dollar a bushel.

Beans lost 27 cents a bushel last week and since January farmers have seen the price of soybeans drop about $1.20 a bushel. The soybean crush seems to set a record almost every month and the export sales demand has been good too. Plus China has been buying U.S. beans. In addition the soybean crop in Brazil and Argentina is getting smaller because of dry weather. Traders are not paying attention to any other news except COVID-19.