Midwest farmers continue to sell corn as it comes out of the field, but hold onto soybeans hoping for even more gains in those prices, grain dealers said on Monday.

“We have seen corn sales pick up a little bit, in soybeans the rally got them to pull back a little bit,” said an Illinois dealer.

Dry weather during the weekend allowed harvest to advance in most areas. In western Iowa, grain storage is filling up and dealers there said corn may soon be piled on the ground.

Big corn yields have farmers looking for any market they can find. (Photo: iphotographer/Thinkstock)

Big yields continue to be reported in most areas with corn at 200 bpa or more and soybeans at 50 to 60 bpa. The crops remain in good condition and lack disease pressure, dealers said. Farm Futures expects the USDA progress report later today to show corn harvest at 78% complete and soybeans at 87%. Those numbers are similar to averages in a broader industry poll.

Truckloads of corn are still being brought to the river even though cash bids are about 15 cents per bushel under those of local processors. Big yields have farmers looking for any place that will take it, said a Quad Cities shipper on the Mississippi. Also, despite their higher bids, some corn processors are full or are operating half days, which has forced farmers to find other outlets for the grain.

Corn at the Gulf was bid about 50 cents over December for November shipment, compared with 47.5 a week ago.

Soybeans in Illinois and Iowa are largely going to local processors, but Gulf bids improved about 4 cents in the past week to about 51 over January for November shipment.

Barge rates may ease

The incoming supply of harvested crops has maintained demand for barges to ship them downstream to export elevators. While barge rates rose in the latest week, they may plateau or come down soon as fluid river navigation has empties quickly moving upstream to dilute some of the upward pressure on rates, river shippers said.

Mid-Mississippi barge rates for shipment next week were about 450% to 475% of tariff, compared with 400% to 425% a week ago. The 50 point rise translates to about a 5-cent per bushel increase in shipping costs for corn and soybeans.

USDA’s latest weekly grain inspections for corn of 31.2 million bushels were up from a week ago, matched trade forecasts but were under the pace needed to meet USDA’s annual export forecast. Soybean shipments of 105.4 million were up from a week ago, beat trade forecasts by a large margin, and easily topped USDA’s projected weekly rate. Wheat shipments of 12 million also were up from a week ago, matched trade forecasts but were under the weekly rate needed to meet USDA’s forecast.

Shipments

USDA said barge grain shipments during the weekend of Oct. 22 were 959,730 tons, up 6% from the prior week and up 0.2% from a year ago.

In the rail sector, grain car loadings totaled 27,300 for the week ended Oct.15, up 2% from the prior week and up 8% from a year ago, USDA’s grain transportation report said.

For truckers, the U.S. average diesel fuel price was unchanged in the latest week at $2.48 per gallon. That is down 2 cents from the same week last year.

Weekly Grain Movement - Oct. 25, 2016 - Soybean harvest going fast, barge rates jump

Weekly Grain Movement - Oct. 17, 2016 - Corn sales increase as prices rise