Southwest Crop Conditions

Excellent soybean yields. Many fields posted record or near-record results. Saw more 70+ yields than ever, by far. Many from low 60's on up. However, not every field or every area was quite so good. Some pockets stayed dry and received little of the late August rains that made so much difference. Some fields are 40's and 50's in those particular areas.

Corn is similar. Excellent yields with many fields at record or near-record output. Seeing more yields topping 240 than ever. Few under 200 except for the aforementioned dry areas, which are seeing 160-170 yields.

Prices hanging in very nicely. Corn and beans both made a low on October 13th and have shown good price recovery since then. Wheat is the price leader at this time. Ethanol production is strong. Some years we see high prices at harvest and storage for later does not pay. How will this year react? So many economic and geopolitical  forces at play, it feels risky to store but good upside does seem possible for grain prices. Having a sales plan in place is always important.

Land sales are very strong. Most of the activity is occurring to our northwest where land values are always the strongest. Therefore, reports of $15,000 an acre or more are hitting the news regularly. Those prices do not occur everywhere. However, al land is selling at significantly higher values than a year ago.