In my January column, I presented 2024 pre-harvest marketing plans for corn and soybeans. When writing these plans, I noted that the selection of a minimum price objective was the most important piece of a pre-harvest marketing plan. The minimum price was the price under which I would not price grain before harvest. Set this price too high and you will get nothing priced. Set it too low and you are too early and too cheap. I set 2024 minimum price objectives that reflect break-even production costs in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa - $5.05 cash/$5.45 Dec’24 futures in corn and $12.40 cash/$12.90 Nov’24 futures in soybeans.

New crop corn and soybean prices have enjoyed a modest rally since late February, but they remain well below my minimums of $5.45 Dec’24 corn futures and $12.90 Nov’24 soybean futures. My minimum price objectives are starting to look high, and I risk getting nothing priced before harvest. This was also true in January but no worries, it was January and I had time to wait for better pricing opportunities. Now it’s April and I need to address the problem, and I will start by asking a question.

Does it ever make sense to price new crop grain if you know that the current pricing opportunity is something less than your production costs? Yes, it does and let me discuss three good reasons to price grain before harvest, even if the price seems low relative to costs.

Spring is here and with it, I hope, is another bump in prices. Will that bump be enough to allow you to price grain above production costs? My preference is to price something this spring, about 20-40% of expected production, even with prices less than costs. And once it’s done, I will hope that my first sales are my worst sales for the year.

This is my early pricing preference, even though I don’t know how to incorporate it into my written plan. What is your preference?