Oct 09 | Closing Market Report

Todd Gleason: 00:00

From the Land Grant University in Urbana Champaign, Illinois, this is the closing market reported as the October 2025. I'm extension's Tuck Gleason. Coming up, we'll talk about the commodity markets with Matt Bennett. He's at agmarket.net, and we'll hear about a program to recycle those grain bags that you're seeing across the Midwest filled with corn this fall. They're usually just one use bags, and they might need a new home in your trash can as your trash can bag.

Todd Gleason: 00:32

We'll hear all about that and so much more on this Thursday afternoon edition of the closing market report from Illinois Public Media. Find us online at willag.org where today you can sign up for the farm assets Conference. It's coming up on the December. Don't wait. There are a limited number of seats for that conference.

Todd Gleason: 00:52

Sign up early. Sign up today for Farm Assets in Bloomington on the December. That's a Friday.

announce: 01:01

Todd Gleason services are made available to WILL by University of Illinois Extension.

Todd Gleason: 01:06

Matt Bennett from agmarket.net now joins us to take a look at the marketplace. Hi, Matt. Thanks for being with us. I know you're in the combine this afternoon. Still doing corn?

Matt Bennett: 01:15

Yep. Yeah. We got done with beans there last week and back into corn, and quite frankly, we don't really have a whole lot left to go. So I'm thinking by the end by the end of the week, we're probably gonna be finished.

Todd Gleason: 01:27

Oh, wow. Will that be as early as you've ever finished?

Matt Bennett: 01:29

You know, I think it's gonna be our second earliest finish that, I can remember in my career. But by all means, it's not, all that common to be done before Columbus Day. So this has been a breakneck speed here over the last couple three weeks.

Todd Gleason: 01:43

Did you get a rain earlier in the week that slowed you down, or did that pass you by?

Matt Bennett: 01:46

Passed us by. I don't know I don't know that it can rain in Shelby County anymore, so, it doesn't seem like it, wants to. We had a little shower there last week, but, yeah, it's dry as a bone.

Todd Gleason: 01:57

How's the later season corn compared to the early season corn?

Matt Bennett: 02:00

In all honesty, our later season corn's pretty good. I mean, I I would say that as long as you've got decent soil types and you sprayed fungicide, you could probably have a pretty decent yield close to a ten year APH, probably not necessarily like a five year APH, but by all means, the corn has been a pleasant surprise for us. I think the the mid to late May planted beans were maybe our biggest disappointment, but we kinda knew they were fighting an uphill battle based on the way we finished the year. But, yeah, corn's been awfully good, I I've gotta say.

Todd Gleason: 02:36

Tell me about the marketplace as you see it today.

Matt Bennett: 02:39

Yeah. I mean, we kinda sold off here, later in the day. Nothing, too bad, but, I mean, there's no doubt. You're gonna have some hedge pressure. There's a lot of combines rolling throughout the corn belt.

Matt Bennett: 02:50

You know? And, of course, there's gonna be some stuff that gets sold across the scale. And, bottom line is you've got a ton of grain moving at this point in the game. And, really, there's not a whole lot on the bullish side of things. Mean, we don't have a USDA report to take a look at.

Matt Bennett: 03:04

A lot of folks felt like we might scale back the corn yield a little. Beans, I think that the average trade guess was a slight revision lower, but bottom line is, I mean, people know these are still awfully large crops. And then whenever we kinda throw that into the balance sheet, it it keeps us with what I would call ample carryout as far as, corn's concerned. They're on soybeans. You know, we're snug, but, that's still assuming a big export number.

Matt Bennett: 03:30

So I don't know that anybody's too worried about running out of corn or beans here over the next few months.

Todd Gleason: 03:34

Without fundamentals being updated by USDA, the trade usually turns its attention to some of the technicals. Maybe there are some other things, but I know today's trade for December corn bounced up against both the 20 and the 100 day and just couldn't make it through and then fell off later in the day. How do you see that continuing to play out?

Matt Bennett: 03:54

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a tough time to be able to push up above that level. I mean, I feel like whenever you're looking at corn, you're probably gonna be looking like a sideways type trade. I mean, on the bullish side, yeah, maybe the yield comes down somewhat. We know demand's extraordinary.

Matt Bennett: 04:10

But on the bearish side of things, I mean, I'll tell you what, USDA has probably, overstepped their bounds just a little bit on their forecast for demand. So I think you could take some wind out of that sale, and that's probably what would have happened here on this October WASDE, especially if they were to drop the yield any. So, really, you can talk both sides of this corn market, and I'd say, you you know, you're probably more bearish than bullish. But with that being the case, I look for more of a sideways type tone. And, you know, in all honesty, I think it's pretty tough to, expect that this thing's gonna break out technically either way.

Todd Gleason: 04:44

And on the soybeans?

Matt Bennett: 04:45

Yeah. I mean, on soybeans, it's range bound trade as well. I mean, everyone's kinda waiting around to see if there's gonna be some sort of a trade announcement. We've been told we're gonna have some sort of an aid package that's gonna roll out. And, of course, that won't happen until we get some sort of a resolution as far as the government shutdown being finished.

Matt Bennett: 05:05

And so bottom line, there's not a whole lot to trade here. I mean, it looks like as far as Brazil's concerned, I mean, they're getting along okay. Planning is going alright. I think they're a little bit dry in some areas, but overall, you've gotta expect that you can't get much of a a bullish benefactor there from from, Brazil at this point. There's just really not much, down there that's gonna get you super excited.

Todd Gleason: 05:29

As you close out the harvest season, what will you be paying most attention to going into November and the October?

Matt Bennett: 05:36

Well, I I you know, of course, we're very interested towards the October on what what is this what is this trade deal look like. President Trump and president Xi are supposed to be meeting. They're gonna come up with some sort of a plan. I guess it's my personal opinion. We already have a decent idea there.

Matt Bennett: 05:54

There's no doubt China's wanted to stay away from us, but at the same time, we're also, as The US, the world's largest consumer of goods. And so China clearly would like to have something be able to put into place with us, but they've definitely made a point here. And so that's what I'm gonna be very interested in. Obviously, we're gonna get another WASI report at some point. I don't know if October is just gonna be completely be canceled.

Matt Bennett: 06:19

But if it is, we're gonna get one in November, and we'll get a lot of updated information there. So those are things I'm gonna be watching very closely.

Todd Gleason: 06:26

It'd be interesting to see how this unfolds. The phase one trade deal, there was supposed to be a phase two last time around, never took place. Phase one was implemented to the point of about 75% of their purchases for agricultural products. Part of that was, the transition to the Biden administration. A lot more time after this one.

Todd Gleason: 06:46

Do you think the Chinese will actually make a phase one kind of deal with this much time left in the Trump administration?

Matt Bennett: 06:53

Yeah. It's a pretty tough call, but I do think once again that they wanna have some sort of an agreement in place to where the tariffs aren't as problematic for them as what they have been. There's no doubt that it's it's affected their economy. I mean, clearly, it's affecting us probably as much from the producer standpoint as anyone, but inflation certainly hasn't gone away. And so I've gotta think they're gonna try to do something to at least appease us to a point that it it takes a little bit of that pain away.

Matt Bennett: 07:22

Whether it's gonna be a phase one type trade agreement, I don't know. But if we remember, boy, they bought a ton of corn after that phase one trade agreement, and that certainly impacted our markets and was a big reason why '21 and '22 are such good times for The US growers. We've gotta hope that we get something like that because right now it's sorely needed.

Todd Gleason: 07:40

Matt Bennett, of course, is with agmarket.net. Matt, thanks for being with us. You can hear him again on our website at willag.0rg. In today's agricultural news, details are scarce, decisions are not final, and the shutdown is slowing a farm aid package the White House is trying to assemble. The White House was putting together the farm aid package that president Trump said Monday he'd talk about this week, then the shutdown and furlough of USDA political appointees took the sails out of a Tuesday announcement, leaving the timing uncertain.

Todd Gleason: 08:16

Here's Iowa senator Chuck Grassley.

Chuck Grassley: 08:18

All we hear is from the administration on 10 to $14,000,000,000, so the final figure hasn't even been agreed upon. And then there's only $4,000,000,000 in the CCC.

Todd Gleason: 08:32

Same fund that USDA used during president Trump's first term trade war with China. Grassley says he spoke with cabinet officials on how to make up the difference.

Chuck Grassley: 08:42

And they said there'd have to be two tranches of it. Some of it coming from money available right now, and then the fund would have to be supplemented by the, Congress of the United States.

Todd Gleason: 08:54

Also giving lawmakers a chance to boost farm income with nationwide year round e 15 legislation.

Chuck Grassley: 09:00

This would generate $25,000,000,000 in new economic activity, and roughly 10,000,000,000 of that is directly from increased corn demand. Another thing congress can do is increase transparency in input markets, and my, fertilizer research act would help do that.

Todd Gleason: 09:20

But Grassley agreed the White House should move faster to stem another farm crisis that, after it announced an emergency move to use tariff revenue, to keep the WIC nutrition program alive during the shutdown. Speaking of WIC or the Women's Infants and Children's Food Aid Program, it's no longer in danger of funding loss. Axios reports the White House will transfer funding derived from tariff revenue to keep the program going for the foreseeable future. White House officials who described the infusion as temporary also declined to say how much money was being sent. The Office of Management and Budget worked to find a creative solution to preserve WIC, which annually has over 6,000,000 people benefit from the program.

Todd Gleason: 10:06

And finally today, a bipartisan group of 47 legislators from both chambers of Congress petitioned the EPA to finalize its proposal for the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, which includes measures to discourage the use of imports into The U. S. Biofuels market. The group sent a letter to Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, asking him to advocate for the proposal. The legislators say it represents a common sense approach that puts America's farmers first in line, strengthens U.

Todd Gleason: 10:37

S. Domestic biofuel markets, and delivers tangible economic benefits to rural communities. An EPA proposal announced in June would change the RFS program to increase the Renewable Volume Obligations reduce the value of Renewable Identification Numbers for foreign produced fuels and bio fuel components and reallocate unmet regulatory cost from exempted small refineries to larger ones. The group argued that the RIN reduction measure would provide essential support for the farm economy. And that's a look at today's agricultural news.

Todd Gleason: 11:33

Up next this season there may be more grain bags across the Midwest than ever before and it might be important to recycle them. Generally, these are one use bags and so once they're emptied they need to have a new use and recycling might very well be worthwhile. I called to talk with Chris DeClerk. He's an irrigation specialist at Delta Plastics. They have a secondary company called the Revolution Company and they will come anywhere in the Midwest to pick up grain bags as long as they're gathered together.

Todd Gleason: 12:08

Chris says he's been with Delta Plastics for about fifteen years but recently has been working through the recycling program.

Chris DeClerk: 12:17

I've been with the company about fifteen years, but I am now also in charge of running a recycling program where we bring in ag plastics. We recycle recycle those plastic, ag components, and we make plastic trash bags out of them.

Todd Gleason: 12:34

So in particular, we're thinking about the number of grain bags that are being purchased across the Midwest this year to store corn because it should be such a large crop that farmers are hoping to keep more of it on the farm than in the elevator. They'll need because I think most of these are one use bags. Is that generally the case for the grain bags, and they're actually recyclable?

Chris DeClerk: 12:59

General generally, they are. Yeah. It's a top of bag plastic they use once. They find a way to dispose of it in some way, hopefully recycle it in some way, and then buy it again the next season.

Todd Gleason: 13:11

You're looking at helping producers and others find a way to properly dispose of this if they don't have another use. And sometimes they do find uses for it on the farm, but these are, you know, 200 feet long. They are enormous pieces of plastic. How do they go about doing that, and what does your company do?

Chris DeClerk: 13:33

Sure. So it's it's a rather easy kind of step through model. If they have the machinery to roll it up, there are grain bag rollers that are out there that you can hook up to a tractor or to a PTO, and just basically wind that big long bag up until it rolls tight into a roll, almost like a like a hay bale, almost looking plastic roll. We'll come get it if they're rolled tight like that. And we have 40,000 pounds of it on-site, which I don't know exactly how many rolls that is.

Chris DeClerk: 14:14

All rolls aren't created totally equal. But if you have around that weight, we'll we'll come get it and dispose of it for you so you don't have to pay for it to be disposed of, and we'll we'll recycle it down into another another product.

Todd Gleason: 14:29

So you'll come anywhere in the Midwest to do that?

Chris DeClerk: 14:32

We will. We sure will.

Todd Gleason: 14:34

And that's that's affordable for you to make it into small garbage bags, tall garbage bags for, I don't the kitchen.

Chris DeClerk: 14:41

Yep. Yep. Yep. It's a good product for for us to take in and to make, you know, other products from. All we ask from the end user, it could be a farmer, it could be a co op, it could be a waste disposal that are looking to keep these grain bags out of the landfill is that you just have the weight, you roll it up tight, you be ready for a truck that we're going to send, which is a 53 foot dry van trailer.

Chris DeClerk: 15:12

And you need to have a bobcat. You need to have a ramp ready to go. That driver will pull up in a dry location. He or she more than likely won't even get out and get out of the truck, but you'd be ready to have the equipment necessary to load him up. And in a couple hours, we can we can be gone.

Chris DeClerk: 15:31

And, it's at no fee to the end user.

Todd Gleason: 15:34

Do you need to have these, bales, for lack of a better word, tied tied up? Or are they heavy enough that they once you set them on, they don't blow? I mean, do they need twine around them?

Chris DeClerk: 15:48

Yeah. It would be good if they had, one piece of twine wrapped around the bag. So, you know, it didn't look like kind of spaghetti like. The tighter the roll, the better it fits inside of the van. And usually a user after one time of loading them up and kind of understanding the the standard operating procedures will get better at at doing this.

Chris DeClerk: 16:13

And, you know, they'll roll the roll tight, and we'll we'll understand how how kind of the fit the fit these, these rolls or these bags into the back of the dry van.

Todd Gleason: 16:23

I'll ask this again, at the end of the conversation, but how do they get hold of you to have this done?

Chris DeClerk: 16:29

You can, you can call me directly, on my cell phone number. It's (501) 772-0161, or you can email me at cdeclercrevolutioncompany dot com. We also have an app called Push for Pickup. If you were to download that app, set up your credentials, you can also spot or dropping a pin kind of like within the app. But if you spot where that pile is, tell us you got grain bags, that will go directly to our logistics department as well so we can get a drive in routed out.

Chris DeClerk: 17:14

But sometimes an end user may need a little bit of education with the app. So, if they need to call or email me directly first, I'm happy to help walk them through that.

Todd Gleason: 17:26

Roughly speaking, how many grain bags, the 200 footers, do you suppose? And I know you said they weigh different. But roughly speaking, how many bags makes up 40,000 pounds?

Chris DeClerk: 17:35

Oh, goodness. I've I've I've really I don't wanna give out an exact number at at all. Some of them are smaller. Some of them are larger. Some of them kind of get you know, they're wedged in there kind of nice, almost like a Tetris in the back, and then some of them may be kind of filled into, you know, an empty void here or there.

Chris DeClerk: 17:56

I I I don't wanna give out an an exact exact number on that because I just I just don't know. I I wish I knew exactly how many rolls make up 40,000 pounds, but, just because each roll is not exactly the same when it comes out of the field.

Todd Gleason: 18:12

Alright. Thank you much. I appreciate it, Chris.

Chris DeClerk: 18:14

No problem. Thank you, sir.

Todd Gleason: 18:16

Chris DeClerk is with the Revolution Company. They're the recycling side of Delta Plastics. That's at deltaplastics.com. If you're looking for information about the recycling program, it may be easiest to go there. Again, that's deltaplastics,plural,.com.

Todd Gleason: 18:33

Or you can simply call Chris at (501) 772-0161. That's (501) 772-0161. I will say that I looked up the weight of a bag empty, and it's somewhere around two to 300 pounds, so there would need to be more than a 100 bags gathered together to make up a 40,000 pound load, I'll bet you as a farmer will be looking for a good way to get rid of these one time use 200 foot long bags after you're done with them. It might be a good idea to contact the place from which you purchased them to see if they can put together a hub where the bags can be brought back to. Anyway, that's how I'm thinking about this.

Todd Gleason: 19:20

Again, deltaplastics.com. Chris DeKlerk is the name. The number is five zero one seven seven two zero one six one, and he says they'll come any place in the Midwest to pick up those bags as long as they're all gathered together. Listening to the closing market report from Illinois Public Media on this Thursday afternoon. Do visit our website at willag.org.

Todd Gleason: 19:57

That's willag.0rg. And there near the top of the page, you'll find a way to register for the farm assets conference. It's not until December 12, but there are a limited number of seats for this event taking place in Bloomington. Make sure you register today for the farm assets conference. The cost is just $80.

Todd Gleason: 20:17

The details are online at willag.org with more information under the registration page. Now let's turn our attention more fully to the fall with Halloween coming up. At the end of this month, thoughts have turned to buying a perfect pumpkin for carving. Do you happen to know which state produces and processes more pumpkins than anyone else? Nathan Johannan does.

Todd Gleason: 20:40

He's a commercial ag educator for University of Illinois Extension.

Nathan Johanning: 20:44

Illinois leads that not only with in Jack o'-lantern, but also within the realm of processing pumpkins. Actually, the majority of the processing pumpkins, if you get, say, a can of pumpkin for your favorite pie, bread, whatever, it is probably Illinois grown. And I think as far as actual different varieties of pumpkins, especially when we get into the small stuff and then all the different colors and things, there's probably well over 200 different varieties of pumpkins, and that's just a very loose estimate. I haven't taken account, but there are a lot more varieties than what the average person may realize.

Todd Gleason: 21:16

Joe Hanning talks about what makes Illinois a top producing pumpkin state.

Nathan Johanning: 21:20

There's multiple factors. I think one on the processing side, a lot of that is driven by where the processing facilities are so that there's some in the Peoria area, Northern Illinois, North Central Illinois. There's some some areas of processing. So they try to source, obviously, pumpkins fairly close to that due to freight and shipping constraints. However, overall, the reason this area was kind of developed into pumpkin production and many other Midwest states is that we have fairly ideal conditions.

Nathan Johanning: 21:49

We have a balance of the summertime heat. We've had plenty of that this year. But we also have very fertile soils, some of the probably the most productive even in the world, some would say, and with balance with the temperate climate that we have that pumpkins appreciate and enjoy.

Todd Gleason: 22:04

A large part of the yearly pumpkin production in Illinois, well, it heads out of state.

Nathan Johanning: 22:09

I don't know the numbers, but a large portion of it does go out of state. We have a lot of commercial growers on the jack o'-lantern side, or I should say, you know, ornamental side that are shipping pumpkins all over The United States in the wholesale market and other things. A lot of pumpkins that go out and certainly on the canned pumpkin. At one point, I thought that Illinois raised around 80% of the nation's pumpkin. So, certainly, a large amount of the canned pumpkin goes out of state and all across the country.

Todd Gleason: 22:39

Again, that's Nathan Johannan. He's with University of Illinois Extension. You've been listening to the closing market report on this Thursday. I'm Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. Don't forget we'll record our commodity week program this afternoon and post it to the website by about 06:00 this evening.

Todd Gleason: 22:57

That's at willag.0rg. Many of these radio stations will carry it over the weekend, and you can hear it in its entirety during this hour tomorrow on our home station.