Pace, size of corn and soybean crop in Iowa, Midwest strains storage capacity

CHICAGO — Farmers are harvesting what are among the largest corn and soybean crops in history at the fastest pace in years, given their physical capabilities and grain storage capacity.

The massive influx of crops in Midwestern states, including Iowa, is testing growers already struggling with grain prices near four-year lows, stiff competition for global export sales and agricultural incomes which are down 23% from the all-time high of just two years ago.

Many farmers in the Midwest still have grain stored from 2023, after they refused to sell a record corn crop due to low prices. Now, dry weather is speeding up this year’s harvests and forcing grain handlers in some areas to store corn outside instead of in storage bins.

“It’s been fast and furious,” Brent Johnson, a corn and soybean farmer in Ashland, Ill., said of the crop.

Weeks of warm, dry weather in the Corn Belt this fall accelerated crop maturity and allowed combinations to continue rolling. As a result, farmers harvested 47 percent of the nation’s second-largest corn crop in history on Oct. 13, beating the five-year average of 39 percent, according to U.S. data.

As of Oct. 13, harvest of the record soybean crop was 67 percent complete, the fastest pace since 2012, when a severe drought limited production.

Jeff O’Connor, who grows corn and soybeans near Kankakee, Illinois, said his employees only had a couple of half-days off last month because of the fast harvest.

“My people and team would like a break,” he said.

As the soybean harvest ends, farmers switch to corn, which typically yields more than three times as much grain per acre as soybeans. At some elevators in the Midwest, the flow of corn from the fields has been filling storage, causing long lines of trucks waiting to dump their loads.

Iowa farmer says his corn is adding to giant pile at ethanol plant

In Shell Rock, northeast Iowa, ethanol producer POET is storing corn on the ground, local farmer Caleb Hamer said, adding that he dumped some of his crop into a pile that it appeared to contain 1.5 million bushels.

“We’re harvesting a crop too fast for our storage infrastructure. That’s the biggest thing,” said Chad Henderson, founder of Wisconsin-based Prime Agricultural Consultants.

Fast harvesting and localized storage force farmers to consider selling some crops for less than they cost to produce. However, corn futures prices indicate that they should hold the grain for a few months, if possible.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, benchmark December corn futures were trading at a discount of about 22 cents to the May 2025 contract. That means farmers could make 22 cents a bushel selling their wheat of moro for delivery postponed to May.

Still, growers shouldn’t store their crop without booking a sale and risk a deeper market downturn, CoBank economist Tanner Ehmke said.

Chris Gibbs, who grows corn and soybeans in Ohio, said that for the first time in 48 years of farming, he has not made an advance agreement to sell his fall crops.

“My marketing plan is to keep my head down and wait for an opportunity to come along, which is a very poor plan,” Gibbs said.

This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: Corn stubs, Iowa crop size soybeans, Midwest storage capacity