Updated Harvest Prices

Although the final corn and bean harvest prices have not been officially revealed, the University of Illinois in their FarmDoc daily blog, just released their final harvest estimate.  Back on October 11, I posted a guess of the final corn price being $7.55 per bushel.  FarmDoc indicates a final price of $7.50 (I was a nickel too high).

In the same post, I thought soybean prices would average $15.30 and FarmDoc estimates this number at $15.39  ( I am off by 9 cents, but about the same percentage).  My net miss for both crops was 4 cents.

The original spring price for corn was $5.68.  Therefore, the final difference is $1.82 which about a 32% increase over the spring price.

The original soybean spring price was $12.55 and the final number represents a $2.84 increase or about 23%.  I believe these are largest price increases ever, but the percentage increase is third and sixth highest ever for corn and soybeans, respectively.

The FarmDoc post has additional information on the history of these price differences.  They are also are predicting average GRIP payments for Illinois districts and it appears that extreme drought recorded in Southern Illinois may result in GRIP payments exceeding $800 per acre.

2012 is shaping up as a year where crop insurance more than pays for itself (just ask your banker).

Paul Neiffer, CPA