Farmers who have struggled to hold on to their land as grain prices waned in recent years have been buoyed by an increase in corn prices and hope that the soybean market will do the same, our friends at Successful Farming reported.

With all the tariff tit-for-tat with China and other headwinds, it’s not the usual market trends that are pushing prices higher. It’s a perfect storm season in which lousy weather has prevented or delayed planting and got the growing season off to a bad start. Successful Farming reports that things are so bad this year that the corn “carryout,” or amount of grain available after the growing season, will be virtually wiped out, along with half the soybean carryout. That will make things tough if a deal is signed with China, a huge buyer of U.S. soybeans in the past.

The shortfall in crops, in part because many acres weren’t even planted, pushes prices up. 

Farmers need a couple of dry weeks, but they are getting a warm and soggy forecast. “Mud is not a good seedbed, and cold/wet soils are not ideal to start the year,” Successful Farming reported. 

But at least there is good price news at the elevators.

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