The beans are in the bag.
Now that the soybean harvest is at a close, the Register sat down with Piqua Co-op general manager Kevin Day to get a sense for how the season went and beyond.
“You don’t know what to expect when harvest starts,” said Day. “I’d like to have more bushels, everybody would, but we’ll make due with what we’ve got.”
As of Wednesday, beans were $10.93 per bushel, which represents a quick and recent increase of about $3. (There are 60 lbs. in one bushel of beans.)
According to Day, “Beans were kind of as expected. It wasn’t a bumper crop, but we didn’t have the conditions for a bumper crop, so I think most were pleased with what they got.”
Regarding the Co-op itself, “our volume was down 20% as far as how much we received. For the conditions we had, it’s not too bad.”
AS OF Wednesday, corn was $3.98 per bushel, and more generally Day said he thought “the price has been good.” (There are 56 lbs. in one bushel of corn.)
“[With] corn,” Day added, “we ended up right about where we normally are, not quite average,” which is better news than expected.
Though fields often differ widely, “generally” the situation regarding corn turned out to be an improvement over predictions.
The dire nature of said predictions hinged on everything from supply chains upended by COVID-19 to not enough rain.
And indeed, “we never did get enough rain,” echoed Day.
THOUGH the lack of rainfall had been a concern, Day also pointed out that “it wasn’t as hot as in past years so that kinda helped us, having a mild late summer and fall.”
It seems beans and corn have survival mechanisms that handle drought better than heat.
That said, the mild temperatures were not enough to allay worries that many farmers entered the bean season with, after a less-than-stellar corn crop.
“People were worried,” said Day. ”And I can only speak for us [regarding a relatively positive assessment]. There are a few farmers that had a little worse luck than others.”
Far as the Co-op more generally, Day said “it wasn’t as good as we hoped, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
Moving forward, the continued lack of precipitation is not yet too worrisome, as there’s still plenty of time before planting.
