Harvest Prices for 2024 Crop Insurance

Harvest Crop Insurance Prices Fall Below Spring Guarantees at $4.16 for Corn, $10.03 for Soybeans

Crop insurance often uses two price discovery periods to calculate revenue guarantees. In 2024, harvest prices for both corn and soybeans are lower than in the spring. (DTN chart)

OMAHA (DTN) -- The average daily close of the December corn futures contract was $4.16 during October, while the November soybean contract was $10.03 per bushel.

The averages are an important piece of price discovery that underpins many crop insurance policies, which use the higher of either the harvest price or the spring projected price to calculate indemnity payments. The projected prices are an average of the new-crop futures contracts' closes during February. They came in at $4.66 per bushel for corn and $11.55 per bushel for soybeans.

DTN Lead Analyst Rhett Montgomery said 2024 represents a return to some semblance of normalcy regarding fall guarantees being lower than spring guarantees for both corn and soybeans.

"The deterioration of prices was also much less extreme in 2024 compared to last year where we saw over a dollar per bushel difference in guarantees for corn insurance versus 50 cents in 2024," Montgomery said. "As a result, revenue protection from 70% up to 85% is unlikely to trigger a payment this year without a reported yield loss."

Breakeven prices per the USDA crop budgets for 2024 are estimated to be $4.78 on corn and $11.70 on soybeans, Montgomery said.

"Last spring saw producers switch acres away from corn and into soybeans, as an insurance soybean-to-corn price ratio of 2.48 incentivized this shift. As of this fall, that ratio has shifted slightly back to favoring corn at 2.40, as a result of estimated record soybean production in the U.S. and Brazil for 2024-25 driving soybean prices down further relative to corn.

"This will set up a very intriguing battle for acres moving forward into the first quarter of 2025, and as always, the February 2025 crop insurance averages will play a vital role in producers' decisions of what to plant in 2025."

October 2024 Dec Nov
dates Corn Soybeans
10/1 4.2900 10.5725
10/2 4.3250 10.5600
10/3 4.2825 10.4600
10/4 4.2475 10.3775
10/7 4.2600 10.3400
10/8 4.2075 10.1625
10/9 4.2100 10.2025
10/10 4.1850 10.1475
10/11 4.1575 10.0550
10/14 4.0825 9.9600
10/15 4.0125 9.9100
10/16 4.0475 9.8000
10/17 4.0675 9.8875
10/18 4.0475 9.7000
10/21 4.0950 9.8100
10/22 4.1650 9.9175
10/23 4.1900 9.9750
10/24 4.2150 9.9625
10/25 4.1525 9.8775
10/28 4.1075 9.7400
10/29 4.1375 9.6525
10/30 4.1150 9.7650
10/31 4.1075 9.8250
October 2024 Average 4.16 10.03
Spring 2024 Average 4.66 11.55
October 2023 Average 4.88 12.84

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article listed the incorrect average daily close of the November soybean contract during October due to a calculation error. We apologize for the error.

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