It’s no secret- we have a demand problem right now for both corn and soybeans. With new crop corn prices hovering around the $4 mark and new crop soybeans under $10, farmers are having to make tough decisions in order to be profitable.
Assistant Professor of Ag Finance at Purdue, Chad Fiechter, joined us on the Purdue Crop Chat Podcast with ‘Soybean Shaun’ Casteel and Dan ‘Corn’ Quinn to discuss the current situation. He says some farmers might choose to plant more soybeans next year because losses on beans will be less than on corn, much like they were this year.
“But I’m always thinking about that idea that as you’re sitting traffic and the lane beside you is going really fast, and the lane that you’re in is going really slow, and then everybody switches to the fast lane, and everybody switches back, and then you basically just do this back and forth. And oftentimes you’re just better off staying in the lane. Sometimes I wonder about that with crop plans.”
Fiechter continues, saying, “You know, you might have some short-term switching, but as a farmer, having that long-term view is important. Unfortunately, if you’re farming, you might only have 50-60 crops that you’re going to grow. Trying to stay consistent, don’t panic, try to make sound decisions, knowing that you can’t control the markets, hopefully get some joy out of the fact you grew a big crop, and live to live to fight again another day.”
Fiechter calls himself a “recovering farmer” after farming for 10 years in northeast Indiana before returning to graduate school and then to Purdue for his PhD. Hear more from him in the Purdue Crop Chat below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
