After spending the winter months in the doldrums, corn and soybean futures prices have rallied sharply this spring. The price of new-crop corn futures popped up nearly 13 percent between April 1 and June 1. The rally for new-crop soybean futures was even stronger, gaining 16 percent during that three-month period.

That futures price rally, which translated to stronger prices at local elevators, certainly brightened attitudes in Iowa farm country. But the price gains shouldn’t have come as a surprise, said Steve Johnson, Iowa State Uni­versity (ISU) Extension Farm Man­­agement Specialist.

"You can almost count on a rally almost every spring," Johnson said. "It’s caused by the uncertainty about the size of the North American crops and will usually last until into June or maybe early July, until the size of the crops become clearer. After that, we...