Harvest Basis Levels Could Be Choppy

BY DANIEL GRANT, FARM WEEK NOW

Fall basis levels could be steady to defensive at the start of harvest as elevators expect bountiful production in parts of the Corn Belt.

Farmers held a large amount of old-crop corn as of the second week of August, while commercial facilities held much of the remaining old-crop soybeans.

“We do have plentiful supplies of both commodities just in front of harvest,” said Hugh Whalen, commodity risk consultant with MID-CO Commodities. “At the beginning of harvest, there could be areas that struggle putting the crop away in Illinois and parts of Iowa. The Missouri crop will be cut back quite a bit (due to drought).”

USDA projects Illinois this season will produce more soybeans (a record 694 million bushels) than any other state, while Iowa could produce the most corn (2.59 billion bushels) than any other state, with Illinois coming in second at 2.24 billion bushels.