The following information is bonus material from Top Producer. It corresponds with the article “Seasonal Wisdom is Still Valid” by Linda Smith. You can find the article on page 32 in the October 2009 issue.
It’s not surprising that ethanol has had little impact on seasonality, since plants are year-around buyers, says Iowa State University Extension economist Chad Hart. However, one might expect that South American would start to flatten out the seasonality pattern, he says. Indeed, the summer peak in cash prices as shown in the Iowa State chart is somewhat lower than that for corn.
However, futures market consultant Jim Wyckoff argues, “The seasonality of soybean and corn futures have not been significantly impacted by the increasing world soybean market share garnered by South American countries.”
Timeline for Planting, Flowering, Podding, Harvest
(click to enlarge)
