Savings from good years helps cushion blow of low commodity prices

MONTICELLO, Ill. — Even as Eric Miller looks at potentially bumper crops of corn, full-season soybeans and double-crop soybeans, the specter of lower commodity prices lurks.

Miller said that saving during the boom years will help cushion the blow of a period of low commodity prices.

“We’ve been farming long enough that we understand the cycles of the business. We conduct business knowing that, in the years that you are making profits — and certainly the last couple of years have been fantastic — you better be setting some of that aside because it can change in a hurry,” he said. “That is certainly what it looks like this year.”

Miller said he doesn’t foresee any major changes or cutbacks in his farming operation due to lower commodity prices, but that could change if the low-price cycle lingers.

“We really won’t be making any changes in our operation in the next couple of years, but we’re like everybody else. If prices stay low for years and years, then obviously you have to make some adjustments. But we will stay the course here for the next two or three years,” the central Illinois farmer said.

With a cool, wet July giving a boost to corn and soybean crops in the area, Miller said he expects harvest of some early-planted crops to start toward the end of September.

“I always feel like the first of October, generally, everybody has something ready, whether it’s soybeans or corn. That’s kind of the average for us,” he said.

“The earliest planted corn and early maturity beans, I imagine people will be harvesting those at the end of September.”