Check our advice monitor on ProFarmer.com for updates to our marketing plan.
U.S. Fertilizer prices have levelled off in Iowa and Illinois according to USDA. However, the stagnation comes as the disparity between fertilizer prices and potential profits widens. The agency on August 22 reported anhydrous ammonia in Illinois was priced at an average of $786 per short ton. With basis considered, Illinois farmers will have to yield an average around 205 bushels per acre for new-crop corn revenue just to match the posted anhydrous price. But the profit squeeze is even greater for phosphates, which have been overpriced compared to NH3 for nearly two years.
As farmers lament the lack of soybean purchases from China, growers continue to face the results of sharply decreased outflows of phosphate from China with urea suffering a similar fate. While the tariff dustup between the U.S. and China arrived long after China had already decided to hold on to more phosphate and urea in efforts to encourage its own domestic production, the current lack of resolution on trade between the two superpowers is doing nothing to tease more phosphate or urea out of China. This will keep supplies available to U.S. importers scant, and prices will remain high for the foreseeable future.
For the sixth time this year, the overall Rural Mainstreet Index sank below growth neutral. That’s according to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a ten-state region dependent on agriculture or energy. The overall reading for August dropped to 48.1 after rising above growth-neutral to 50.6 in July and 51.9 in June. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with a reading of 50.0 representing neutral growth.
“Weak agriculture commodity prices for grain producers continue to dampen economic activity in the ten-state region,” said Dr. Ernie Goss of Creighton University. “Bank CEOs and chief loan officers expect almost one-fifth, or 19.5 percent, of grain farmers to experience negative cash flow for 2025.” According to Jeff Bonnett, an ag banker in Illinois, “As current prices for corn and soybeans are still below break-even, the majority of the state’s producers will struggle to show operational profitability.”
Cases of New World screwworm infections in Mexico have climbed by more than 50 percent since July. As of August 17, Reuters said Mexico has documented 5,086 cases of the flesh-eating screwworm in animals, a 53 percent rise from July, according to numbers released by the Mexican government. The updated numbers previously unavailable to the public show 649 currently active cases of screwworm infections. “That’s incredibly concerning,” said Neal Wilkins. He told Drovers that a fifty percent increase in the number of cases from July to August, particularly in extreme heat, means that Mexico hasn’t gotten the parasite under control.
An NCBA spokesman said the increase in the number of NWS cases shows that the New World screwworm is a very present and real threat. Drovers said the increase in the number of reported cases likely comes from Mexican cattle producers more closely inspecting their cattle and reporting any suspicious wounds or pests.
Prices paid for Illinois farmland dropped slightly during the first half of 2025. That’s according to information from the Illinois Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Survey respondents indicated that while 31 percent expected no changes in prices paid, the balance reported the following declines: down 2.2 percent for excellent-quality farmland, down 3.5 percent for both good and average-quality land, and prices were three percent lower for fair-quality land.
In addition to the reported drop in prices paid, most respondents expect farmland prices to decline slightly or remain stable during the rest of 2025: 49 percent expect declines of under three percent, and 33 percent expect prices to remain the same. Most farm managers are also expecting cash rents to be lower in 2026 compared to this year by between $15 and $20 per acre. Rents on excellent land are expected to drop from $391 to $374 an acre.
Your weekend read…
When John Wilkes Booth fired a .44 lead ball into Abraham Lincoln’s head, the murder shook a nation to its core and led to 13 days of bedlam rivaling any stretch on U.S. record. Manhunts, scoundrels, eunuchs, and mass death followed, all tied by a common thread—agriculture.
Farming is not merely woven into the fabric of America, rather, it is the fabric. All of U.S. history is rooted in soil, no period arguably more so than the last gasp of Civil War carnage carried out by a surreal cast of characters, almost all pulled from agriculture’s stage.
Welcome to a bizarre tale bouncing from deranged assassins to scissored castration to a burning barn to lunatic asylums to the cruel deaths of over 1,000 emaciated soldiers, all soaked in the blood of American farming.
Notable closes:
Corn futures shot higher in today’s trade, extending Thursday’s short-covering gains.
- September corn futures firmed 12 ½ cents to $3.98
- December corn added 10 ¼ cents to $4.20 ¼
Today’s trade was volatile across the soy complex. By the end of trade, soybean meal was moderately higher and soybean futures followed to the upside.
- September soybeans firmed 8 ½ cents to $10.36 3/4
- November beans gained 6 ½ cents to $10.54 1/2