Corn basis

What local corn is worth against the board, by state and district · USDA AMS · Nov 3
Cheapest corn
−80¢
USDA · North Dakota · 5 bidsNov 3
Most expensive corn
+75¢
USDA · South Carolina · 4 bidsNov 3
Bid up vs own year
7 of 22
Derived · ≥ 80th pct of own yearNov 3
States reporting
22
1 stale
USDA · elevator bids · dailyNov 3

Corn price gap between feeding states Derived

Nov 3
Most expensive feeding state
+75
Texas · 3 bids · cents a bushel
Cheapest feeding state
−65
South Dakota · 5 bids · cents a bushel
The gap
140¢
a bushel, on the same day and the same contract
At 55 bu a head
$77
corn cost difference, per finished steer
Corn in Texas is running 140 cents a bushel over South Dakota — on the same day, against the same contract. Both figures are USDA elevator bids, so the gap is arithmetic on two published numbers and nothing is assumed to produce it. The board price is identical for both; every cent of this is local.
The per-head figure rests on one number USDA does not publish. A finished steer eats roughly 55 bushels of corn, which is stated here rather than buried in the arithmetic: 140¢ × 55 bu = $77 a head. Change the bushels and the answer changes proportionally. This is a cost difference, not a margin — it says nothing about what either feeder earns.

National corn basis

Corn has one price on the board; what your elevator bids is different, and that gap is the basis. Negative means corn is cheaper than the board where you are. Positive means someone local is bidding it up.
The map's center over the last year Derived— each day, the median of the reporting states' own medians. Cents a bushel.
Median of state medians
-40-20020DecFebAprJunAugOct−5¢

Basis is the only genuinely local part of a corn price — it moves with local supply, freight and storage rather than with the national crop. A negative basis is a surplus with nowhere to go; a positive one is what feed demand looks like.

USDA publishes the gap and the contract it is quoted against, but not the board price itself, so no futures price appears anywhere on this page.

Corn basis by state USDA

Cents a bushel · cheapest first
7 of 22 states sit at or above the 80th percentile of their own year, only 5 at or below the 20th — North Dakota, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Corn is bid up against the board almost everywhere at once.
StateMedianRange todayBidsDistrictsYear rangePercentileReported
North Dakota−80−90 to −7555−85 to −552%Nov 3
South Dakotacattle feeding state−65−80 to −4055−77 to −4922%Nov 3
Minnesota−40—11−56 to −3052%Nov 3
Iowacattle feeding state−33−40 to −1676−40 to −1515%Nov 3
Kansascattle feeding state−20−45 to +30119−53 to −2089%Nov 3
Nebraskacattle feeding state−20−36 to +4077−50 to −1090%Nov 3
Missouri−18−35 to +251010−45 to 031%Nov 3
Ohio−15−55 to −1244−35 to +1319%Nov 3
Illinois−8−20 to +251212−30 to +1125%Nov 3
Oklahoma−5−35 to +4563−40 to −582%Nov 3
Indiana−5−15 to +70108−28 to +2020%Nov 3
Kentucky+5−75 to +75117−45 to +3524%Nov 3
Tennessee+10−25 to +3276−40 to +3523%Nov 3
Virginia+20−40 to +8077+3 to +5557%Nov 2
Arkansas+26+25 to +2631−46 to +4666%Nov 3
North Carolina+33−40 to +90124+16 to +7027%Nov 3
Wyoming+40—11−42 to +4097%Nov 3
Coloradocattle feeding state+50−20 to +9044−33 to +6092%Nov 3
Maryland+70+60 to +9044+20 to +7097%Jun 23stale
Pennsylvania+70+25 to +7533+50 to +1402%Oct 27
Texascattle feeding state+75+50 to +8033+50 to +7587%Nov 3
South Carolina+75+55 to +10042−5 to +9047%Nov 3
Green is cheaper feed, red is more expensive — color is read from the buyer’s side here, the opposite of what it means to the farmer selling. A district is a distribution, not a number.

States are sorted from the biggest discount to the board to the biggest premium. Each carries its own report date— some file daily, some weekly, and a few have gone quiet. The percentile says where today sits in that state’s own last 12 months, so a low number means corn is unusually cheap there by its own standards. Each state is measured only against itself, so this ranks how unusual a basis is, never how high.

This desk is for people who buy corn rather than sell it, which is why green marks a discount to the board. USDA files each elevator bid separately but publishes no elevator name, so where several bids land in one district the median is shown with the day’s range beside it — taking any single row would be an arbitrary pick rendered as a fact. Where a state shows no range, it filed one bid per district that day.

Source: USDA AMS daily grain bid reports, current_flag=Yes bids only. Country elevator series only — Gulf export, barge, port and grain-exchange quotes are different markets and are excluded rather than pooled. Cash grain prices in dollars a bushel are on the grain desk.

Corn basis by district, cattle-feeding states USDA

By reporting district
A state median hides a lot: corn can be 60 cents apart across one state. These are the districts inside the states where cattle are fed.
StateDistrictBasisBidsRangeContractReported
South DakotaCentral−801—December (Z)Nov 3
North Central−801—December (Z)Nov 3
Northeast−651—December (Z)Nov 3
East Central−451—December (Z)Nov 3
Southeast−401—December (Z)Nov 3
IowaNorth Central−401—December (Z)Nov 3
Northeast−351—December (Z)Nov 3
Northwest−331—December (Z)Nov 3
South Central−301—December (Z)Nov 3
Southwest−282−35 to −20December (Z)Nov 3
Southeast−161—December (Z)Nov 3
KansasNorth−451—December (Z)Nov 3
Central−352—December (Z)Nov 3
East−351—December (Z)Nov 3
Southeast−351—December (Z)Nov 3
Northwest−101—December (Z)Nov 3
Northeast−101—December (Z)Nov 3
South−52−20 to +10December (Z)Nov 3
West+101—December (Z)Nov 3
Southwest+301—December (Z)Nov 3
NebraskaNortheast−361—December (Z)Nov 3
East−351—December (Z)Nov 3
Southeast−301—December (Z)Nov 3
Central−201—December (Z)Nov 3
South−161—December (Z)Nov 3
Southwest+131—December (Z)Nov 3
Northwest+401—December (Z)Nov 3
ColoradoSoutheast−201—December (Z)Nov 3
Northeast+451—December (Z)Nov 3
East+551—December (Z)Nov 3
North Central+901—December (Z)Nov 3
TexasCentral Panhandle+501—December (Z)Nov 3
North Panhandle+751—December (Z)Nov 3
South Panhandle+801—December (Z)Nov 3
The contract column is the futures month each bid is quoted against, as USDA names it. Bids set against different months are not comparable with each other, which is why the column is shown rather than assumed.