Check out the Farming for Profit, Not Price Conference in Nashville, TN, on January 31-February 2.
This event brings together leading minds in agriculture, finance, and trade for a weekend focused on managing risk, navigating challenging markets, and building relationships that last well beyond the event.
For more information, check out this short video.
Good Morning!
This is the last newsletter for the year. 2025 has certainly been an interesting year. This is the third year in a row of challenging profit margins, so we’ll hopefully see 2026 bring us something better. My crew is busy with basketball games/tournaments over the holidays, so we’ve not been home as much as I’d prefer. However, once January rolls around, it’s meeting season-so I’m trying to enjoy this time as much as possible. If I’m coming to a meeting in your area, be sure and reach out-I always enjoy putting faces with names. Have a Happy New Year and we’ll see you on the other side. For more information on AgMarket, click here. https://hubs.li/Q03qt2Qd0
Several of you have asked for more details on our winter conference. I’ll leave the link in these e-mails, but if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. The dates are Feb 1st and 2nd. https://web.cvent.com/event/327d2477-70a8-48b2-a270-5fb9e53dbe52/summary
The markets haven’t been much fun to wrap up the year. On Monday we had moderate losses, while we didn’t get a turn-around Tuesday. With good weather in South America and some likely farmer selling to end out the year, we’re seeing last week’s gains evaporate quickly. Outside markets should have provided a mixed bias:
CORN
The corn market isn’t doing much at all so far this week, so it looks like we’re going to close out ’25 on a down note. March corn closed 1 ¾ lower at $4.40 ½. This was 2 ½ off the high and ¾ off the low. Corn export inspections were above expectations at 1.3 mmt. The USDA may have some more work to do when it comes to exports for this marketing year. The pace of not only sales but shipments is still well in excess of what they’re predicting for this marketing year. Ethanol grind has been impressive as well. IF we can keep from major bird-flu outbreaks, it seems to me this demand will need to increase. Now, if we could only get a pullback on yield on this January report, we might have us a little more exciting market. On Tuesday, Dec26 corn settled 2 lower at $4.61.
BEANS
Soybeans had the first nice week we’ve seen in awhile last week but this week we’re back to our old ways. March beans were down 1 ¼ at $10.62 ¼. This was 5 ½ off the high and 1 ½ off the low. March soybean meal was down 1 at 302.3, while soy oil was up .15 at 49.44. The weekly inspections showed beans at 750kt, which was below expectations. This bean market continues to see solid domestic demand with crush continuing at a strong pace. Chinese purchases have gotten this export market going finally as well. However, with what is perceived to be a huge crop out of Brazil, it's tough to get buyers active again. I struggle to get bullish beans, especially heading into the new year, but it’s tough to be too bearish at the same time. Beans are oversold, so we’ll hopefully see them stabilize and try to build something as the new year kicks off. As with corn, we could sure use a bullish USDA report in January. On Tuesday, Nov26 beans closed 1 ½ lower at $10.74 ¼.
Matt Bennett
815-665-0462 – Work
@chief321 - Twitter
mbennett@agmarket.net – E-mail