Farm Economists: Skyrocketing corn prices impacting Nebraska farmers

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Over the past several months, the price of corn has skyrocketed and with the conflict in Ukraine, experts in Nebraska believe the price could continue increasing.

Business Insider has a 6 month chart showing just how much the price has jumped. In September 2021, the price was around $5 a bushel of corn. That price has risen nearly 43-percent, to well over $7 a bushel.

The price of corn has risen nearly 43 percent in just the past six months.(KOLN)

In this one month chart, it shows almost a 17-percent increase in just a month.

Economists said this past month’s hike, like many other things, is because of the current issues between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine is the fourth largest exporter of corn, behind only the United States, Brazil and Argentina. At this point in time, Ukraine’s ports are shut down and are not exporting corn. As the tensions with Russia rise, it’s causing a lot of uncertainty for farmers as well as consumers.

“That takes a big supplier off of the market, so we’re seeing prices react to that,” Nebraska Farm Bureau senior economist, Jay Rempe said, “It’s really rocked the markets, a lot of uncertainty coming into 2022. We had a lot of uncertainty anyway because of input costs, diesel fuel prices and fertilizer prices this just adds to that.”

Economists predict from a supply and demand standpoint, the price should come back down over the next several months. With the Ukraine and Russia conflict, there’s a chance the price could keep growing higher in the immediate future, creating even more uncertainty.

For one, the meat prices that were eventually supposed to come back down aren’t expected to have lower prices anytime soon. The higher the price of corn, the higher the price to feed cattle which means higher costs at the meat counter.

For Nebraska’s corn farmers, who have experienced the ups and downs of the pandemic, they could see some serious returns if prices remain this high.

“Let’s say 50-percent of last year’s crop was unsold, it could mean upwards of $500 million in additional revenues for Nebraska farmers,” Rempe said, “Now that was at one point in time, the market has changed a lot since then, but it gives you a sense of what this could potentially mean for the bottom line of farmers.”

Rempe said the added revenue will help offset some of the higher costs farmers will have to take on throughout the remainder of the year.

Economists also emphasized how quickly things can change, but at this point in time corn is still inching closer to all time highs.