Row Crops Today — June 11, 2026
The 5-minute 5 AM brief for row crop producers and ag professionals
Headline Stack
🔬 New Orleans urea hits $453.50/ton, down 36% from mid-April peak
📊 Economist expects few surprises in Thursday's June WASDE
⛽ Midwest diesel sets May records; distillate stocks at 23-year low
🌍 House Ag Committee opens USMCA review covering $60B in farm exports
🌽 Specialty corn and soybean premiums running $0.40 to $2.00 over the board
Top Story
🔬 New Orleans urea spot price falls to $453.50/ton as Iran-war premium fades. — LINK
Granular urea at New Orleans settled at $453.50 per short ton, the lowest level since February 6 and down 36% from the mid-April peak that followed the escalation of the Iran conflict. The decline erases the Strait of Hormuz risk premium that had pushed Corn Belt nitrogen costs to multi-month highs heading into spring application. Bloomberg commodity data cited by Successful Farming attributed the slide to easing freight concerns through the Persian Gulf and softer global tender activity, which together pulled Egyptian and Middle East benchmark prices lower and reset U.S. import parity. Ben Klieve, Benchmark Analyst, noted the broader input picture remains mixed for row-crop operations: "It's a very difficult environment for row-crop farmers today. The prices of the grain that they're producing have fallen sharply in recent weeks and are actually down relative to the pre-Iran war levels, while input costs like diesel and fertilizer remain significantly higher so their bottom lines are only getting weaker." NOLA urea last traded near current levels on February 6, before Middle East tensions added a roughly $250-per-ton premium that has now unwound over eight weeks.
More This Week
📊 Economist expects modest June WASDE adjustments Thursday. — LINK
University of Missouri Extension economist Ben Brown expects only minor revisions in Thursday's noon Eastern WASDE, with a small downward adjustment to corn ethanol use and continued softening in soybean export estimates already largely priced in.
Brown said the report will likely confirm the demand trends traders have been tracking since the May release rather than introduce new surprises.
Old-crop U.S. soybean export shipments have repeatedly missed weekly USDA pace targets through spring, leaving the export line as the primary candidate for further trimming.
⛽ Midwest diesel hit record highs in May as distillate stocks fall to 23-year low. — LINK
Indiana diesel reached $6.167 per gallon and Illinois hit $6.14 in mid-May per AAA data, pushing fuel costs from a $20-per-acre midpoint to roughly $30 per acre for Illinois row-crop farmers, according to Benchmark Analyst Ben Klieve.
"It's a huge cost," said Glenn Brunkow, who raises soybeans and cattle in Wamego, Kansas. "There's just not much we can do about it, and we weren't budgeting for it. It came out of nowhere and surprised us."
U.S. distillate fuel oil inventories fell 2.1 million barrels in the week ended May 22 to 100.8 million barrels, the lowest level since May 2003, per the Energy Information Administration.
🌍 House Ag Committee opens USMCA review covering $60B in farm exports. — LINK
House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson opened the formal USMCA review hearing by noting Mexico and Canada together purchase more than $60 billion in U.S. agricultural commodities annually — roughly one-third of all U.S. ag exports.
The committee is examining dispute-resolution mechanisms, biotech approvals, and dairy market access ahead of the joint review window that opens in July.
Mexico is the largest single-country buyer of U.S. corn and a top destination for U.S. soybean meal, while Canada is the leading buyer of U.S. ethanol.
🌽 Specialty corn and soybean premiums running $0.40–$2.00 over the board. — LINK
Clarkson Grain senior merchandiser Kelsey Graber said food-grade and non-GMO corn and soybean premiums are running between 40 cents and $2.00 over the board of trade, with lower seed costs partially offsetting yield drag.
"And the good thing about those is the seed is typically cheaper," Graber said. "Also, white corn is pretty easy to enter. You can grow it conventionally or you can grow it non-GMO. And then waxy corn. But these are kind of the easiest. You don't really have to change a lot of your agronomic practices."
Graber said producers interested in exploring specialty grain markets should start making plans now for the 2027 crop year.
Basis Watch
Kentucky Bluegrass old-crop corn basis firmed 8 cents on Wednesday, the largest corn move of the session. Across the western Corn Belt, old-crop corn basis improved 5 cents at South Dakota Central, South Dakota North Central, South Dakota Northeast, Nebraska South Central, Kansas Southwest, and Minnesota South, while Nebraska Northeast, Nebraska Southeast, and Iowa locations posted gains of 2 to 4 cents.
Old-crop soybean basis firmed 15 cents at both Illinois North Central and Nebraska Southeast, leading the soybean list. Nebraska Central and Nebraska East Central each improved 10 cents. South Dakota Central, South Dakota North Central, South Dakota Northeast, and Iowa South Central strengthened 5 cents. Missouri Northeast bucked the trend, weakening 5 cents on the day. New-crop soybean basis at Minnesota South firmed 5 cents.
Source: USDA AMS
New Orleans granular urea spot prices have dropped 36% from their mid-April peak to $453.50 per short ton — the lowest level since February 6 — as the Iran-war risk premium fades.
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