To send a message to an author, click on the author's name at the end of an article. Corn and soybean futures prices typically bottom during the fall harvest months of October and November. The seasonal pattern for both crops is for prices to gradually recover and peak by late spring or early summer. This combination of low futures price and weak basis are the reason harvest time prices are generally unattractive. This seasonal price pattern and the strengthening of basis provides the opportunities for storage profits.
History suggests that in many years it does.
Seven out of the last ten years have provided opportunities for storage profits when corn was stored four months or more. Another seven out of the last ten years have also offered storage opportunities for soybeans. The size of the nation-wide crop can offer clues as to whether storage may pay in any given year. The low harvest time prices encourage demand and prices begin to recover as demand uses up the crop supplies. This recovery is often more than enough to cover the cost of storage.