WASHINGTON, D.C.  - It was almost like hitting the jackpot last year for corn and soybean producers in areas like the Midwest and Southeast.

Yields and prices easily saw double digits increases over 2019, according to the latest crop report from the USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS).

The value of the 2020 corn crop in Indiana was up 40 percent to $4.37 billion while the soybean crop value in the state rose 54 percent to $3.76 billion.

The average price of Indiana corn also rose from an average of $3.84 to $4.45 per bushel. The price of Indiana soybeans last year averaged $11.40 compared to $8.92 in 2019, according to the NASS report.

According to the NASS report, the value of the 2020 corn crop in Ohio increased by 54 percent to $2.54 billion while the $3.05 billion value of the soybean crop in the state was 61 percent above the previous year. The price of corn in Ohio went up from an average of $3.91 to $4.50 per bushel while soybeans commanded $11.60 per bushel or $1.56 more than 2019.

In Michigan, the value of the corn crop increased 54 percent to $1.36 billion.

The state’s soybean crop was valued at $1.18 billion, an increase of 93 percent above the previous year. The average price of corn in Michigan rose from $3.73 per bushel to $4.45 while soybeans on average went from $8.81 to $11.50 per bushel.

The value of last year’s corn crop in Illinois was $9.27 billion or about $2.7 billion above 2019. In Illinois, the $7.01 billion value of the soybean crop in 2020 was about $2.4 billion above the previous year. Soybeans in the state sold for an average of $11.60 per bushel or $2.76 above the 2019 price, according to the NASS report.

The value of the Kentucky corn crop went from just more than $960,000 million to $1.12 billion last year. The average per bushel price of corn in the state increased from $3.92 to $4.45. According to the NASS report, Kentucky soybeans went up in value from $698 million in 2019 to $1.16 billion last year while the price of soybeans increased from $8.98 per bushel to $11.50.

Michael Langemeier, associate director of the Center for Commercial Agriculture at Purdue University, said the increase in each state’s crop value is from the 2020 harvest being much greater because of the negative impact a historically wet spring had on 2019 yields.

He said the higher grain prices are from a drop in supply despite a strong 2020 harvest.

Langemeier said supply was higher in 2019 because skyrocketing demand for exports didn’t really take off until late in 2020 and global demand, especially from China, has been enough to cut into the stockpile.

“It’s unbelievable, really, how much more soybeans they’re buying this year compared to a year ago and the same with corn,” he said.

For years, China was a major buyer of soybeans from the United States until 2019 in retaliation to the trade war, he said.

China has since returned as a major customer for U.S. soybeans in response to the phase 1 trade agreement negotiated with the Trump administration. 

Langemeier said China, though, never imported much corn from the United States until just recently.

He said China’s demand for corn is believed to be from its efforts to rebuild a pork industry decimated by African swine flu. “What we think is happening is they’re very, very aggressively rebuilding their swine herd.  Pork is their meat of choice for the consumers,” he said.