Driving from central Illinois to North Dakota, Gulke Group president Jerry Gulke says the early planted corn continues to be challenged. The late planted corn looks good, but walking in the fields, the ears are small. “It may not have been about frost in this discussion, but maturity. The slow maturity will drag on,” says Gulke. “In 2009, we had similar conditions to this year. No one believed the crop wasn’t there until harvest. At harvest, it got worse and worse,” he explains. “The market rallied through harvest after early lows. It will be a long, drawn out affair that this will be a year to remember. If we have a record crop out there, knock me over with a feather. I don’t believe it.”
