Iowa farmer wonders what surprises the market has in store for 2021

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Iowa farmer wonders what surprises the market has in store for 2021

2020 has been full of surprises, including a counter-seasonal market rally that’s boosted corn and soybean prices heading into the new year.

But Iowa farmer Brent Renner says he’s not convinced these price levels are here to stay.

“It caught more people by surprise this year than it has in the past, but unfortunately it’s difficult to study the market and not come up with a few things that can and probably will happen that could drop it as quickly as it came up.”

He tells Brownfield anticipated volatility would make marketing tricky in 2021.

“What do you do, (do you) market 50 percent of your crop and hope for the best, that you’re going to have another 50 percent to market at a higher price? And if you don’t, be ready to sell as it goes down. I don’t know, you tell me.”

Soybean futures have reached new contract highs as 2020 comes to a close, with support the past few months coming mostly from Chinese buying and shrinking global inventories.