PEORIA, Ill. – There’s too much corn and not enough soybeans.
That’s the analysis of DTN Lead Market Analyst Todd Hultman about what to expect in farm markets for 2024. Hultman is a featured speaker at this week’s Greater Peoria Farm Show to discuss the topic.
For corn, Hultman says yields were at its highest levels in five years, with around two billion bushels. But farmers are having trouble selling the crop.
One reason is due to drought conditions causing restrictions on barge traffic on the Mississippi River and the Panama Canal.
“We’d like to ship that corn efficiently to Asia into the Asian markets, but it’s become more and more prohibitive to go through the Panama Canal when they’re being hurt by drought restrictions for the traffic there,” Hultman says.
Hultman says there’s also concerns with being able to get into the market with increased competition and yields from Brazil, due in part to farmers having the ability to increase the amount of land available to grow.
He says while farmers will have a good bumper crop of corn for next year, it will cause lower prices for farmers.
Hultman is also hoping to see more soybean production in 2024, in part because of a growing demand for it.
“We’ve got a brand new renewable diesel market that’s two years young and still growing leaps and bounds. We’ve got more renewable diesel plants coming online in 2024,” Hultman said. “Soybeans is a market with a brand new source of demand it never had before a couple of years ago.”
Hultman says soybean yields were at some of its lowest yields in four years at around 50 bushels per acre. He says that’s due to farmers preferring to grow corn over soybeans.
Hultman is hopeful farmers will seek to grow corn and soybeans evenly in 2024.
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