Weekly Crop Commentary - 4/25/2025

Wes Bahan
Vice President, Grain Division

Good afternoon. I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday. Spring seemed to get into full swing this week. It will be interesting to see what the USDA has for planting progress on Monday night's report. With lots of corn going in the ground this week, we did see the corn market struggle a bit. We seemed to bounce back to end the week on a good export sales report and a reported sale this morning of a Mexico purchase of both old and new crop corn. The bean market seemed to have a rather positive week.

With the dry conditions primarily to the west, the chances of seeing a higher corn-planted acreage number appeared to be the main catalyst. With all the field activity going on, we did see cash basis levels get another shot in the arm as deliveries to end users dried up. With the rain last evening and the forecast for next week, grain movement should once again pick up, but the overall stock issue locally shouldn’t allow that to apply too much pressure. Have a great weekend.

Haylee VanScoy
Director of Grain Purchasing

The bean market has been trading with a bit more optimism to end the week, as traders eye potential progress in easing trade tensions. Japan is reportedly considering increasing its imports of U.S. soybeans to help fill the void left by China, while discussions with India and Vietnam also appear to be trending in a positive direction. On the old crop bean front, SK beans have rallied an impressive 88¢ in just the last three weeks, though we’re still about 34¢ below February’s highs. Nonetheless, there may be a good window here to finish up any remaining old crop pricing. The soybean complex continues to find support from the soyoil market, with investors awaiting today’s expected EPA announcement on the biomass diesel production mandate.

On the corn side, the old crop has slipped about 5¢ this week but continues to hang tough, trading right around the 20-, 50-, and 100-day moving averages. Mexico remains an active buyer of both old and new-crop corn, and a weaker U.S. dollar is giving U.S. exports a bit of a competitive edge. Meanwhile, South American crops are shaping up well—Argentina’s corn is rated 37% good-to-excellent versus the 15% three-year average, with harvest a third complete and well ahead of normal. Their soybean crop also looks solid at 43% good-to-excellent, far better than the 16% five-year average.

We’ll be rolling to July futures next week, so keep that on your radar. Farmer selling has been relatively quiet this week as folks focus on fieldwork—spraying, planting, and getting things rolling. Wishing everyone a safe and successful planting season ahead!

Briana Holtzman
Grain Merchandiser, Upper Sandusky (Region 2)

I hope that everyone had a Happy Easter last Sunday!

Soybeans led the markets this week, posting positive gains just about every day. This was due to the anticipation of a biodiesel mandate and hopes of an agreement on tariffs between the US and China soon. Corn and wheat have been feeling the effects of favorable weather forecasts for key US planting areas. Overall, though, grains remained resilient this week as stocks and the US dollar continued to fall.

It has been a fairly wet past two weeks, hopefully everyone who has found a window to get planting efforts underway is having success! With more rain expected to move through tonight, stay dry!

Steve Bricher
Grain Operation Manager, Urbana (Region 3)

Well, what a nice week of spring we have had. I think every planter that was available has been running here in western central Ohio. I am sure it was the same across much of the Midwest. We should see a large increase in planted acres in next Monday’s report.

The markets have not had a great week, but considering we are seeing planting progress and no real news out of Washington on tariffs, I guess we should not expect much. We still have corn over 4.00 cash for harvest corn and over 4.25 for January 2026 corn. I like selling some bushels at these numbers if we meet planting intentions and we have a trendline yield. Soybeans have had a better week, and I am not sure why. We still have a massive crop in South America. The main news seems to be a belief that we will see some sort of biofuel mandate that will increase soy oil usage, remains to be seen.

The weather after today looks like we will continue to get this crop planted and into the ground, as I see the forecast for next week with temperatures in the 70s. Please be safe as you work this spring, and if we can help you in any way, let us know.

Lisa Warne
Grain Merchandiser, Marysville (Region 4)

Good afternoon! I hope you all have had a great week in the fields. There was certainly a lot of dust flying and seed going in the ground. Marysville’s grain driveway seems abandoned, while the agronomy driveway has been hopping! I’ve heard overnight rainfall amounts ranging from 0.1” to 0.7” with some more scattered stuff on the way.

Early in the week, the corn market struggled with the planting progress report coming in a little higher than expected. As of last Sunday, the U.S. was 12% planted, while average and expectations were 10%. The corn market has recovered some on Thursday and Friday, back to within a few cents of last week’s close.

The soybean market continues to show unexpected strength. It was supported this week by soybean oil. The front-month of SB oil has rallied to its highest since December of 2023. Also helping is news that China has reportedly exempted some U.S. imports from their 125% tariffs and is weighing which critical goods need to be levy-free. Although they have not publicly stated what may be exempted. On the soybean planting progress, U.S. plantings came in at 8%, ahead of the 7% expectations and 5% average. Ohio was still at zero, but we should see a good increase in Monday afternoon’s update. Have a great weekend and continue to be safe out there!