Weekly Corn and Soybean Review

May 27, 2022

Up and down trading week for corn. July and December corn both finished 3 cents lower for the week at 7.77 ¼ and 7.30. Corn sales were slow this week with only 2.3 million bushels of corn sold for the 2021/2022 crop year, which is the lowest weekly sales in this marketing year. Shipments on the other hand were strong for corn at 71.7 million bushels. China is talking with Brazil about taking corn of less quality and certain GMO’s, this could shift some corn exports to Brazil instead of the United States. There were rumors China bought nearly 40 million bushels of corn from Brazil but it was announced for late July early into August which is when they typically start to import from them anyways. This may impact U.S. exports slightly but not as much as initially suspected.

Soybeans gaining on the week after Thursdays strong gains. July soybeans gained 26 ¼ cents on the week, with a final price of 17.32 ¼. November soybeans gaining 21 ¾ cents this week, with a final price of 15.44. Sales were a little slower for soybeans this week with only 10.2 million bushels of old crop sales and 9 million bushels of new crop soybean sales. Domestic soybeans continue to be in high demand. Many processors have started rolling bids to the August, not because of ownership but because of volatility and margin issues.

Minneapolis wheat gaining on Chicago this week with very slow planting progress in North Dakota and Minnesota. Minnesota only had 10% of its spring wheat planted compared to the 5 year average of 90%. July Minneapolis wheat gaining 15 ¾ cents on the week with Chicago losing 23 ¾ cents on the week. Russia had announced they would be willing to let some grain leave Ukraine for humanitarian efforts, but only if NATO agreed to ease sanctions and Ukraine releases some POW’s. It is unlikely NATO will ease sanctions since it’s the only non-military way they have to fight against Russia.

Brazil has continued drought for most of the second corn crop with some scattered showers expected next week but it will miss the biggest corn growing areas. United States weather did allow for some strong planting besides North Dakota and northern Minnesota. The 14-day forecast looks to have a decent amount of moisture to promote a good start to the crops but looking further out things look to be cooler with little rainfall. We have already seen rainfall amounts not hit expectations and decreased totals across the Midwest.

We did see a big drop in nitrogen prices this week with spot anhydrous prices dropping from $1500/ton to $1,000/ton, giving some hope to lower fertilizer prices this fall.