Funded by the Illinois Soybean Checkoff
“Beans in the Teens” What conditions led to the tightest soybean market we’ve seen in years?
Farmers like Brian Atteberry are encouraged by the early 2021 market rally and are looking forward to kicking off another growing season this spring.
By Betsy Osman
M
ost farmers will tell you that a sizzling soybean market is only a seasonal victory in a lifelong commitment. It’s sort of the difference between a hot first date and a marriage that flourishes over decades. A growing population, weather fluctuations caused by a changing climate, evolving pests and weeds, volatile commodity markets and prices, politics, and public
6 March 2021
concerns all threaten profitability and long-term sustainability. Farmers are expected to deliver reliability again and again, despite swirling, unknowable forces. But when the proverbial sun shines, the strained winds of trade relations quiet-down, and the supply and demand stars align, we are reminded that soy farming is indeed the sweet life. And we feel planted anew in the collective success of our proud community.
As the world came limping out of 2020 and into a new year, we were met with the tightest soybean market we’ve experienced in six years. In January of 2021, the hashtag #BeansInTheTeens went viral as global stockpiles reached 3.1 billion bushels and the stocksto-use ratio is 23 percent, the least since the now famous 2013-2014 soy era. U.S. soybean ending inventory was being projected at 175 million bushels, with a stocks-
to-use ratio of 3.9 percent, the second-least in more than two decades. Brazilian ending stocks were projected at 761 million bushels with a stocksto-use ratio of 15.6 percent, an increase from the prior year but the second-least in more than two decades. On the back of those tight soybean supplies, the U.S. marketing-year average soybean price was projected at $10.55 per bushel, the best since 2013’s $13 per bushel and well more than
