An Iowa State ag economist is much less hopeful for the price of soybeans as it relates to leaving them in long-term storage. Chad Hart is an Extension agricultural economist from Iowa State University.

Well, as you know, I’m hearing that there is some movement, but I’m hearing a lot more that a lot of this production that has come in is finding a place in storage somewhere, waiting for better prices. Everybody’s looking to what I call the ‘slope of hope.’ As we look at the futures market, it continues to offer us that upward trajectory out there. It may be slow in growth, but it is offering better prices longer term.”  

The question is whether it’s the right thing to do.

“I always like to tell folks it depends upon the financial situation of your farm. I can’t necessarily tell you if it is a good or bad thing, but I do believe that for those that do have good working capital to deal with right now have the flexibility, especially of on-farm storage, to control those costs. It can be a very good thing to do, but I want to have a plan in mind. I don’t just want to stick the beans or corn in the bin and set them and forget them. I want to have a plan. When am I going to market? What price levels will trigger me to open that bin up and put those crops into the marketplace?”

Hart has some price ranges he likes.

“I’ve been watching to see how these markets have been bouncing. And when I, for example, when I’m looking at corn right now if you think back to where we were, pre-harvest lows here, we watched about a 50-cent run, and we’ve been able to hang on to about 25 to 30 cents of it. So, I think we’ve figured out that this is a market that’s looking to sustain itself above four but has shown its willingness to move towards that $4.25, $4.50 range if we’re looking deeper out there. So, if we can get close to $4.50, that’s a good time to start thinking about sales because that would be getting us much, much closer to our production cost that we know we locked in.”