Chad Hart, professor, was interviewed for an Oct. 19 AgriMarketing story, "USDA Reports Much More Corn in Iowa is Unharvestable than Originally Estimated."
Driving prices higher was a global grain-use report showing that demand for corn has declined but production also has fallen, said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist. And demand for soybeans was higher, while production shrank.
Hart said the coronavirus outbreak in the spring drove corn and soybean prices lower, but adverse weather and rising demand have pushed prices higher at harvest time. It's the reverse of what farmers usually see, he said - appropriate for a year when almost nothing has gone as expected.
"This is a continuation of 2020, where up is down and left is right," Hart said.