10/29/25 Afternoon CommStock Report – Things We Learned From 2025 Harvest & Brazil Transportation Costs

We wrapped up the 2025 harvest this weekend on the farm in NW Iowa. Corn yields were in line with what we were hoping for. We don’t have the final weight tickets yet, but overall we should be north of 250 bpa….maybe more. We might have a shot at taking out our personal best of 261 bpa. We lost 10 to 20 bpa on the high wind (mini-derecho) event that occurred in August, causing sporadic lodging throughout the field. The corn stalk did not collapse but it snapped over enough, effectively shutting off nutrients to the ear. Some things we learned this year: Fungicide was the big one. It probably saved us 30 bpa or more. We also learned that not all fungicides are created equal, as some reported applying fungicide but still reported crop damage to disease. We also heard from folks that are starting to put a second fungicide application in their routine. Part of this depends on the growing season, as drier years may not warrant it. The challenging part of fungicide in my opinion, is you need to have it applied before there is any visible impact.  Speaking for our area only, in mid-August growers were…