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Higher grain prices a blessing and curse

Higher grain prices are both a welcome relief for crop farmers and cause for concern on livestock operations going into 2021.

Total Farm Marketing senior market advisor Naomi Blohm says the upside potential is $4.50 for corn, $10.50 for soybeans, and $6.00 for wheat.

“We are at some of the better prices that we’ve had for a few years. So the end users, a livestock or dairy producer, I think that they have been securing grain for their home farms.”

She tells Brownfield livestock margins could get very tight next spring and summer if there are problems in South America.

“It’s going to be a delicate point of understanding where the South American supply is versus what’s left in the United States. Did we sell everything to China that we had (and) is there anything left for our producers?”

And Blohm says if U.S. drought concerns linger into the 2021 growing season, it could be a very interesting second and third quarter for the grain markets.