The Tractor Seat Bounce: How High Will It Go? Will There Even Be One?
When you head to the field in the spring, what happens to the market? That “tractor seat bounce” usually occurs. Will it happen in the corn market this year? Will it happen in the soybean market this year? Several of the prominent Extension Marketing Specialists have been focused on outlook recently, and we’ll visit with them to see if you should leave some sell orders with your elevator manager. At Purdue, Chris Hurt is optimistic about corn prices, albeit with some qualifications. “Price prospects for corn continue to improve as usage grows; however, there remain massive old crop stocks that will continue to constrain price increases. The growth in usage is driven by robust foreign purchasing of corn since mid-January and by the rapid expansion of ethanol capacity.” Chris says USDA continues to push upward its projections on corn exports this year, and ethanol plant construction is at a feverish pace with good profit margins for ethanol producers. But he also says the USDA report at
