North Gower Grains

Monday, July 20, 2026, 7:40 am

Friday was a positive day for our markets.  Harvest corn closed up 3 1/2, harvest soybeans closed up 8, harvest winter wheat closed up 8 1/4 and harvest spring wheat closed up 11 1/2.  In the overnight trade corn, soybeans and spring wheat remain on the positive side with winter wheat now negative.  Oil closed up $3.50 on Friday at $81.78 per barrel.  It is weaker in trading this morning with it now priced at $80.14.  Our dollar traded between a low of $0.711 US and a high of $0.714 US on Friday with it closing out at $0.713 US.  This morning it is once again valued at $0.713 US. 

Our markets rallied Friday and were supported by the heat wave in the US and the continued war between Russia and Ukraine.  The heat wave has mostly ended however there still is little precipitation in the forecast for the most of the areas that were harder hit last week in the Northern Corn Belt.  This is supporting prices with thoughts that it has hurt the prospects of a strong yield in those areas. 

Managed money supported the rallies last week with purchases increasing their small long positions (looking for prices to go up).  They still hold a small short position in the wheat market but this has been mostly liquidated over the last couple of weeks. 

Lots of news on the war fronts affecting our markets.  Crude oil prices jumped up to over $84 per barrel over the weekend as bombings intensified between Iran and the US.  Thankfully prices have pulled back this morning.  Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has almost completely stopped once again. It has been reported that over 200 vessels have been attacked in the Black Sea over the last week which is resulting in Insurance Companies pulling out of this market.  This will make it even more difficult for Ukraine to export their grains out of the recently damaged Port of Odessa. 

Last week was a positive week for our markets.  Corn was up $4 per tonne on both the spot market and for this year’s harvest with next year’s harvest up $3 per tonne.  Soybeans were up $4 per tonne on the spot market, $5 per tonne for this year’s harvest and $6 per tonne for harvest 2027.  Winter wheat was the strongest last week with it up $14 per tonne on both the spot market and for this year’s harvest.  For harvest 2027 they were up $11 per tonne.  Spring wheat was up $10 per tonne on both the spot market and this year’s harvest with it up $5 per tonne for next year’s harvest. 

Row crop prices are still enjoying the benefit of last week’s heat with positive prices this morning.  It seems that spring wheat is also on this bandwagon with winter wheat prices taking a breather at this time.