It’s no secret that prices have softened in the grain markets during the last several weeks. Greg Ruehle, executive director of the National Sorghum Producers, says the lower grain prices include sorghum.

“Prices for all of the grain commodities have softened these last six or seven weeks, and sorghum hasn’t been immune to that. We have seen as the South Texas harvest was underway and wrapped up in late June and early July, we saw a real change in the basis there. The last boat that was loaded with sorghum for China, which would have been in probably late July, and the basis to finish filling that boat was a plus $2.10. That’s a phenomenal basis.”

Due to high basis prices, merchandisers must stay informed, which is a key to fulfilling contracts.

“As harvest moves further north, as we go through the Texas panhandle into Oklahoma and Kansas and Colorado, certainly, we anticipate seeing basis narrowly as a means of pulling that grain into merchandisers hands, where they’ve been, got the ability to either take it to export or take it to biofuels production here in the High Plains.”