Kinda OT..Corn?

What is the consensus on storing corn or selling it now. (I have no storage) I met my contracted corn agreement and ith what's left I was thinking on selling as local price is $6.10 vs my contracted corn (some at $5.24 and some at $6.89). I don't think we'll see $6.89 for some time. It costs 15¢ per Bu to store for 3 months and 3 1/2¢ per Bu for every month after that. I got to sell by May. Opinions? 

I don't raise enough to really forward contract.  I'm sitting still on all my crops (soft red winter wheat, corn, beans) for while...at least December...based on my belief impact of the drought on yields and total production isn't fully realized yet and based on market patterns the last couple years.  My elevator is 3.5 cents a bu per month, 3 month min storage charge.  No charge if sold within 10 days of delivery.  Mike

Lonn,

Almost every year I have more grain to sell than what I contract on the 110 acres of soybeans and corn I farm (I don't have storage either). My corn is still standing, but two weeks ago we harvested the beans for which I had 700 bushels contracted for $13.21/bu., about half the grain I thought I'd produce. As it turns out, I averaged 48 bu. per acre, my best in 20 years farming on my own on mostly moderatley productive land. Anyway, I decided to just take the cash price for the rest, which were delivered over about 4 days. Day one's price was $11.00, day 2 about $11.20, day 3 about $11.40, and last day about $11.80.

While I wish I had gotten the $11.80 for the remainder of my beans, I'm still able to make some money at $11. So the moral to my long story is to have a good idea of your production cost when deciding whether to sell or store. The price goes down much easier than up. Also, I agee with a previous responder that the prices look like they will stay flat for awhile, but who knows.

Edited by Ben (MI) - 19 Oct 2011 at 11:48am

If you sell at that price you'd still have a VERY good ave price.Plenty of us sold early in the year for a fair bit less but it was still a profitable sale.Don't know how much rise you'll see by end of May.Could go either way.As Dirty Harry asked,"Do you feel lucky?" A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I was done in March with fwd contracts and sold then because everything was so out of whack price wise that I figured it couldn't last.I guessed wrong but still had downside protection locked in.Yeilds were off this year and I have a handfull of corn left after filling contracts.It's stored at the elevator and I'm just going to let it lay there til August or so and see what happens.It ain't enough to make or break me so it'll be "fun".

WC7610 wrote: Hi Lonn,   I'm good with others money ;)  What did your total yield make?  Sometimes it is an eye opener to look at the total revenue/acre and not get so greedy on the price!   FWIW, I think it will be higher later.  Harvest is most times the cheapest time of the year.

When I sell I sell spot.  I don't pay attention to the markets in most cases cause it's usually depressing to see what I "could've" gotten.  There are trends like prices go down during harvest time and in January but other than that if you can hold it for a few months and not sell in January you'll usually be ahead.

Although, with my edit I will say I don't trust the economy or prices to stay up either.


Edited by Byron WC in SW Wi - 20 Oct 2011 at 8:51pm