Aug 25 | Closing Market Report
From the Land Grant University in Urbana Champaign, Illinois, this is the closing market report. It is the August 2025. I'm extension's Todd Gleason on the Farm Progress Show site today setting up for the big show that starts tomorrow. We hope you'll come visit us here at the U of I tent. When you come in the main gate, turn to the right.
Todd Gleason:You cannot miss about a block away, the great big College of Aces banner in orange will be right inside the tent as soon as you enter it. Coming up during today's program, we'll talk about the commodity markets with Kurt Kimmel of agmarket.net. Travis Burke from UO by Extension will take us on a quick tour of what's happening in the University of Illinois Tent Farm Progress Show, and we'll catch up with Mark Russo. He is at Everstream Analytics. We'll talk with him about the weather, of
Todd Gleason:course, on this Monday edition of the closing market report from Illinois. Public media, it is public radio for the farming world online on demand at willag.0rg. Todd Gleason services are made available to WILL by University of Illinois Extension. December corn for the day at $4.12 and a quarter had finished three quarters of a cent higher. The March at $4.29 and 3 quarters up one.
Todd Gleason:November beans at ten forty seven and three quarters, down ten and three quarters. The January 1067 and three quarters, 9 and a quarter cents lower. Bean yield down a dollar for the day, bean oil 53¢ lower, and the wheat futures soft red in the December up two and a half, it finished at $5.29 and three quarters of a cent a bushel, the hard red in the December at $5.20 and 3 quarters, a quarter of a cent lower. Live cattle futures in Chicago, a dollar and a nickel lower at $2.36 82 and a half. The feeder cattle, $425.75, down a dollar 75, and the lean hogs at $91.40 up 20¢.
Todd Gleason:The crude oil for the day at $64.89, a dollar 22 higher diesel fuel or heating oil about three and nine tenths higher at $2.34 and 3 tenths of a cent per gallon and the RBOB at a dollar 99 and a half is around a hundredth of a cent lower so just about unchanged at this hour. We're now joined by Kurt Kimmel he's at agmarket.net out of Normal Illinois to discuss the marketplace. Hello, Kurt. Thanks for being with us, and thanks for coming out to the Farm Progress Show with us this week too.
Curt Kimmel:Oh, boy. Looking forward to it. I can't believe it's that time of year again. So looking forward to meeting some listeners, be it your booth there, but do Ag Market will have a booth in the big, tent there in the center aisle somewhere. I gotta figure that out when I get there, but we'll be there with a display Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday also.
Todd Gleason:Yeah, so the Varied Industries tent, I'm sure is where you will be, and that is right next to us, relatively speaking. So when people come in the main gate, they'll turn to the right and see a great big orange banner on the end of one of the tents that says College of Aces, The very dangerous industry stents are kind of across the street. They're just closer to the main gate than ER, but not much. We're only a block and a half or a block or so down from the main gate, so should be easy to find you at the agmarket.net booth and me too here in the U of I tent. What it might be harder to find is higher prices for soybeans at least today.
Todd Gleason:What happened in Chicago?
Curt Kimmel:We we are firm in the evening trade. Those novies trade one and three quarters, but we'll kind of the upper end of the trading range here. If you look at a price charges kind of ran out of momentum when you look at the supply demand balance, you can keep a 53, 54 bushel yield in there that keeps supply somewhat doable. But I guess the main talk over the weekend was that China was mentioning or saying the word protectionism and that kind of threatens the agriculture trade side of the equation there. So just a little bit more uncertainty with China.
Curt Kimmel:China normally buys about fourteen, fifteen percent of the beans here by Labor Day, new crop beans that is, and man there's just nothing happening on the bean export side of the equation. Now whether they're buying under the radar, we'll find out, but, as of right now the bean demand's questionable. So we saw some spread unwinding here. Producers seem comfortable with the bean yields, uncomfortable with the corn yields. So we saw buying corn, selling beans, buying wheat, selling beans most of the day.
Curt Kimmel:Provided funds sold about 2,300 contracts. The beans bought 6,100 contracts of corn, about 2,300 contracts a week going into 11:00 there, Todd.
Todd Gleason:You know, was good to see you last Thursday at Riggs Beer Company there in Urbana where we recorded commodity week. Riggs Beer, by the way, is available here on-site just for those who are interested. It's it's in the where in the beer garden. You'll have to figure out where that is, but you can pick it up. And they have those cool Farm Progress Show cans, commemorative, though I don't know how long the can will stay full, but you can pick those up.
Todd Gleason:What I was trying to get at, was that you, the three of you were talking about the fall bases, what might happen with it, what farmers should be thinking about, and and how really they should approach soybean sales and corn sales. What's that discussion about, and and what are you telling producers this week?
Curt Kimmel:Yeah, that's the key here, trying to line up where the grain is going to go this fall, where it's on farm storage, off farm storage. The main concern off farm storage at the elevator particularly, there's concern that the basis could widen out. So if you're in an area or situation where you can kind of lock in a tight basis or move price the grain and do some type of re ownership and save on storage and shrink and try to capture you know $20.25 cents improvement here as we move into the year end is probably the key strategy on farm storage. Actually if you look at the deferred contracts, the July corn at $4.50 and those deferred beans 11 particularly new crop beans 26 beans $11 area or so might not be a bad idea to kind of place a hedge and wait for the market to see the basis cash market kind of firm up. But yeah, it's going to be a challenge here.
Curt Kimmel:We'll see how fast the crop comes to town for the most part. Most are already prepared by looking at some flat storage or baggers or some different alternatives. But the main thing is I think we'll have a fall low end through here. The commercial probably signaling that there's downside on that, but I think they want the market go down so they could be a buyer. There's a lot of things to watch here as we go into this volatile.
Todd Gleason:You know, after the pro farmer crop to where I'm wondering if you've heard from the producers about southern rust and how much of an issue they think it is in their particular fields, and does that vary from state to state from what you've been hearing from them?
Curt Kimmel:Yeah. It varies quite a bit. Of course, the the most of the video or pictures are more interesting in Iowa where you go out in the field to come out a horn. So it seems to be a lot thicker in Iowa. We're starting to hear more reports here in the Eastern Belt.
Curt Kimmel:Most agronomists say they've seen it before, but not this bad. And it's just kind of hard to get a handle on on which direction we're going here. Some of the ones playing this kind of low says, well, there's only a one to 10% yield loss, but others say, you know, there could be quite a bit of yield loss. Also to the time of that fungicide spray, the application supposed to be around the blister sage is good till the dent and they kind of feel that one spray help help take the edge off. So I think we're getting an education on on on Southern Rust.
Curt Kimmel:It's been around, but not this evident, and and it's been quite of a conversational piece here over the last three weeks.
Todd Gleason:Hey. Thank you much. We'll talk with you again here at the Farm Progress Show, I think, on Wednesday. Correct?
Curt Kimmel:You bet. We'll be there Wednesday. Looking forward to it, Todd.
Todd Gleason:And you'll be here all week too. So you'll be, I think, in the Varied Industries tent, of course. That's near the Ulfaya tent. Thanks much, Kurt. Kurt Kimmel is with agmarket dot net.
Todd Gleason:Well, I'm here at the University of Illinois tent in Decatur at the Farm Progress Show coming up tomorrow. Travis Burke is here from U of I Extension. Thank you Travis for being with us. Really Well, it's busy here, isn't it?
Travis Burke:Yes, it is busy. We're getting all set here and lots of things to offer here at the ACES tent. We're very happy to be here. Big event, huge.
Todd Gleason:Well, let's take a little tour of the U of I ACES tent. Let's talk about what we can find as you come in. Of course, one of the first things you come across is just an introduction to University of Illinois Extension. Sure. You've been in Extension Services for, I think, all of your career.
Todd Gleason:Tell me about this three pronged approach, the the land grant mission and what Extension does and and how important it is for the agriculture and agribusiness side.
Travis Burke:Okay. Sure. Well, the, land grant system, which got underway in 1914, is, three arms which brings together the teaching, research, and extension piece. They're all offered at the land grant institutions in which U of I is one of our the the land grant for Illinois. And and we do things to help people have a better quality of life.
Travis Burke:Now in terms of the Farm Progress Show, this is really big for us because, of course, agriculture is one of the main drivers of of ag of revenue for this state. So this is a big part of what we do, the ag piece. So we we feel that we really need to have a big presence.
Todd Gleason:We'll get to some of the things that have to do with other folks in just a bit, but tour with me here. Sure. Let's begin with the DIFM, which stands for Data Intensive Farm Management. This is part of the Ag Econ team, and it's all about science that producers can do on their own in their fields, and they can be paid by the US government for doing those those science experiments. But it's really about being able to use your planter or your combine and collecting data and setting up experiments just like extension would.
Travis Burke:Yes. And precision ag is just what it says. Farmers nowadays, particularly with the economy like it is right now, farmers have to really be precise, if you will, in all that they do and their implements, in the equipment, in the new technologies, and trying to use that to help to, foster some of their income. And out here at the farm show, there'll be lots of these precision ag, pieces of equipment that, farmers can use and learn more about so that they can be more effective and take it back to their farming operations.
Todd Gleason:Now on that note, Sulla Issa will be here along with Dennis Bowman, and they deal a lot with digital agriculture, with drones, with safety in Sulla's case. And, actually, with Sulla, thinking about how safety pertains to drone, what kinds of things he, in fact, puts conferences together about this issue, what kinds of things really need to take place in drones as they would have with tractors years and decades ago. For instance, the ROPS or the rollover protection on the back end of a tractor that when you roll over keeps the cab from being smashed. Those kinds of things. So this is part of
Travis Burke:digital agriculture as well and the AI farms. Yes. You know, ag has really come a long way in the new technologies, as you were mentioning, Todd, about rollover prevention in tractors, which was a big tech back in the day, three or four decades ago. But I tell you now with our artificial intelligence and sustainable lag and then comp combining that with digital lag and the technology with drones. And, you know, these drones can do flyovers.
Travis Burke:They can do digital imagery. They can do seeding. They can do a lot of things for the certified crop advisers when they're trying to get data for the farming operations. These this different technology can go in and get infrared shots of leaves, for example, in a cornfield, which would then generate data so that the farmers can do a better job of coming up with diseases and some of the other micronutrients that might be missing in the plants. So there's a lot, you know, things going on that in digital ag, AI farms, and and a lot of this you can go right out to our research farms, there on campus and see some of this in action.
Todd Gleason:There are a couple of things I think producers will be particularly interested in, as they think about weed control, diseases, and insects in their fields. Of course, I'll be hosting panel discussions. You can find out, some things at 11:00 in the morning with crop scientists, 11:30 with the ag economist on the stage here, but they're in the tent as well. For instance, Aaron Hager, a weed scientist, will be right here in the tent, and I believe he'll probably be here all three days of this event. And weed control is a massive issue and becoming a really big problem across the whole of the Corn Belt.
Travis Burke:Yes. I know. And and that is an issue. Some of these invasive species and the weed pressure this year, in particular, with all of the rains that we've had, the farmers have really had a heavy battle to try and do some things to offset some of the weed pressure. So doctor Hager will be here and will be here stationed here at the tent to talk more about some of the things that farmers can do as one of the, you know, the cultural practices in dealing with that.
Todd Gleason:I think one of the bigger things and on Tuesday, I think is we'll have most of the leadership from across the campus Yes. Will be here. Mhmm. The new director of extension Correct. Matthew Vann will be in.
Todd Gleason:The new chancellor, Charles Isbell, will be here. The dean of the college, Herman Bolero, will be with us. That's gonna be a big day. It's really important that they're here in the tent for people to find
Travis Burke:and see. Sure. Yes. We've got a lots of changes going on in Illinois Extension right now, lots of things that are out of our control, you know, but then there's a lot of things that that are new people, new faces. As you mentioned, Todd, with the chancellor, our new director of extension, doctor Van Cumming, and the dean, Herman Bolero, and and then most of our people in some of our specialists, our HORT, local foods and small farm teams, our ag teams, the nutrient loss reduction strategy, a lot of the sustainable ag or research education program, master gardeners.
Travis Burke:We just have a lot of different things here under the tent that people can sort of see what we do in terms of the land grant mission for teaching research and extension.
Todd Gleason:Yeah. In LRS, our nutrient loss reduction strategy dealing with water and how farmers and others manage nutrients that are coming onto their properties and sometimes leaving their properties. The master naturalist program is a fantastic program, and the horticulture folks are across the board. They're they're just, the the cream of the crop, and everybody wants to talk to them. Mhmm.
Travis Burke:I tell you, I really hope, those of you listening, today can come in, particularly the Hort team. They really, they are working right now putting together lots of different plant choices that'll be having some different species here for people to see if there are examples here in a a garden, so to speak. Once you come in the tent and go left, you'll see some of the display area where you'll find the master gardeners and and the hort team putting together some of the different plant species that people can use as homeowners across the state.
Todd Gleason:Travis, thank you much, and I look forward to the three day event coming up Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Travis Burke:It's gonna be great. Looking forward to it, Ty. Thank you
Todd Gleason:for having me. Indeed. Travis Burke is part of the leadership at University of Illinois Extension. He'll be here. I'll be here.
Todd Gleason:You should be here too. When you come in the main gate, look to your right, and you will see a giant orange sign that says college of aces on the end of the tent. It's only about a block, maybe a block and a half away. Come visit us first. Come back off and check out the willag.org website because we have the stage presence there and who you'll find on stage with us as well.
Todd Gleason:We have some heavy hitters coming in all day long each and every day. Again, that's awillag.0rg. Travis and I and the rest of extension are looking forward to seeing you over the next three days. Mark Russo now joins us. He is at Everstream Analytics.
Todd Gleason:Hi, Mark. Thank you for being with us on this day before the big show opens in Decatur with the Farm Progress Show Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I'm sitting in the University of Illinois, Tims. The weather is as good as it possibly could be today to set up. Will it stay that way for the rest of the week?
Mark Russo:Yes, Todd. With the pattern here for this week, some of the cooler temperatures that have worked their way into the Midwest, they're gonna be in place all of this week. So and actually, an unseasonably cool pattern, nothing extreme, nothing from a, you know, freeze threats standpoint out there, but unseasonably cool for this latter portion of August. Also, this drier pattern that, has evolved here recently does look to continue through this week. There will be some minor rain activity coming up later on Thursday, maybe in the Friday in the Central And Eastern Belt.
Mark Russo:But all in all, it's a drier than normal pattern in place across the Corn Belt this week.
Todd Gleason:What do our daytime highs look like across the Midwest and the overnight lows?
Mark Russo:Yeah. From a maximum temperature standpoint, highs will generally be in the seventies this week across the Midwest. And from a minimum temperature standpoint, those morning lows will be in the fifties, even some upper forties, such as what we saw this morning across the Upper Midwest.
Todd Gleason:I believe I know the answer to this question, but is there any correlation between early cool temperatures and early frost or freezes?
Mark Russo:No correlation here, Todd, as you probably expected. It's just more a circumstance, the way that the upper level pattern across the whole Northern Hemisphere here recently is just driving in this cooler weather, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's any harbinger of things to come here later in September or October.
Todd Gleason:As we closed out the week last Friday, I believe that there were rains scheduled to come into the Southwest in parts of the Kansas and Texas, Oklahoma, maybe Colorado areas. Is that the case?
Mark Russo:Yes. Plains Hard Red Belt saw significant rainfall over the weekend, and that is the start of an extended period of wet weather in the Plains. And with this, we call it preseason rain activity that will increase topsoil moisture across the region and even increase subsoil moisture. Again, very timely here as we begin to approach the new upcoming winter wheat planting season in the plains.
Todd Gleason:In Europe, what are you watching today?
Mark Russo:Well, we're watching an increase in rainfall with more normal rainfall expected across all but Southeast Europe over the next couple of weeks. Now here recently, much of Europe has again turned unseasonably dry and hot. That continues in Southeast Europe as we go through the next two weeks. But for the remainder of Europe with more active conditions and also variable temperatures, that's going to help stabilize summer crops and also at least provide a little boost in soil moisture for upcoming winter crop planting.
Todd Gleason:And finally, have not yet discussed Brazil and Argentina weather for their planting season coming up. Brazil either starts in the next week or in the next two and a half weeks. It's not clear to me just yet whether that will be the case. I'm wondering how you feel their planting season, particularly in Mato Grosso might go for their first crop soybeans.
Mark Russo:Yeah. Well, lot of focus is on, whether there will be a timely start to the rainy season across Mato Grosso and Center West Brazil coming up during the October. That is a normal window of the onset of the rainy season. And from what we see right now, it does look like a timely start here with rains across Mato Grosso, would ultimately lead to initiation of planting in a timely manner across that area.
Todd Gleason:Hey. Thank you much. I appreciate it. You're welcome, Todd. That, of course, is Mark Russo.
Todd Gleason:He is with AvaStream Analytics, joined us on this Monday edition of the closing market report from Illinois Public Media. Don't forget to come and visit us in the University of Illinois tent over the next three days. When you come in the main gates of the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, just turn to your right. You'll see a great big orange banner that says College of Aces on it. A fantastic week and we look forward to having you there in the University of Illinois tent.
Todd Gleason:The show hours by the way are from 8AM to 4PM. You can find out what's going on the stage on our website at wilag.org. W I L L A G dot O R I'm Yulag Extensions, Todd Gleeson.
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