Your Farm’s Financial Conditionand Profitability Revisited

Looking at December futures contracts, corn prices may have reached a high and are tending to recede. If they stay higher, producers will likely have a good year. Still, if they tend to decline, which is possible given current carryover and supply projections, prices may stabilize or decline as we approach harvest. Those with multiperil crop insurance in areas with lower yields, e.g., droughtstricken areas with sufficiently high enough levels of coverage, will benefit from the February projected price of $5.91/bu. For the past two seasons, fall prices exceeded projected prices in the spring, making selling at harvest an attractive proposition and leading to higher farm income. In general, this is not the case. Most often, corn prices reach their low at harvest time.