Make CSU-TAPS Marketing Decisions
Price Your Corn!
Don’t skip crop marketing decisions in the last month of the 2024 CSU-TAPS competition, says Bryan Irey of Crossroads Coop.
By Christine Hamilton
Marketing decisions can make the difference in final CSU-TAPS seed-corn competition standings. (image by Omer Izrael)
On Friday, November 1, 2024, IIC Associate Director Amy Kremen sat down with Bryan Irey, senior merchandiser at Crossroads Coop, to discuss current market conditions and to get his insights on smart marketing as we enter the final “crunch time” of this year’s 2024 CSU-TAPS competition.
Exports are good. “Corn exports have been just absolutely phenomenal over the last three weeks,” Bryan said. “They've been very good even year-to-date,” which increases the demand for seed corn.
“One additional place we could find more demand in the corn market was on the export side, and we're certainly finding that at the moment.”
Futures have flattened. “The direction of December corn futures has been very, very hard to determine,” Bryan said. “We've seen futures trade in a $.03 trading range overnight several times over the last two weeks.”
He explained that range is an indication that the market environment is lacking direction.
“As we go on through the month, I don't know that [the basis] gets a lot higher than $.75 over the December board as harvest winds down,” Bryan continued. “I think there's some risk by waiting—maybe not a significant amount of risk—but I do think there's risk.
“I think that the general overall feeling here is that futures [will] remain flat.”
Price your corn. Keeping all that in mind, Bryan said, “Getting your corn flat-priced or forward-contracted for delivery once it is harvested is your best option.
“We could get a little bit of news out of the election, a little bit of news out of USDA reports [released] on November 8, but past that, it is going to be very, very hard to find anything that will drive [markets] one way or the other, basis-wise,” he said.
“It just makes sense to get your corn priced over the course of the next week or two.”
Bryan called recent improvements in the bases over recent weeks as “a little bit of a gift” that has benefitted producers who haven’t priced their corn yet. However, he noted that it’s advisable to get some corn priced, given how corn contest rules stipulate a $.10 per bushel handling charge.
“Rather than paying [the] handling charge if your bushels aren't priced at the end of the month, [pricing your corn] makes sense,” he said. “It's a very fine line between profitability and non-profitability at this point. It’s time to do something.”
It’s not too late! Even if you haven’t tackled the marketing aspect of the TAPS competition, you can still make decisions that may help your standing among all the teams. Between now and the end of the month, Bryan will continue to provide teams with a basis price, delivered through the competition’s weekly email. He’s also willing to discuss marketing questions with participants.
Please contact us if you have any questions. Good luck to everyone here as we approach the finish line!