IDALS (Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship) tracks corn and soybean basis in six regions across the state of Iowa (NW, NC, NE, SW, SC, and SE). This report focuses on corn basis in Iowa. While the general corn basis patterns are quite similar between the regions, there are subtle differences.

Northwest Iowa

There have been two distinct periods of corn basis strength in Northwest Iowa since 2000. (Figure 1) The first was during MY 2010/11 through 2013/14 when annual average basis improved from -0.41/bu in 2010 to +0.33 in 2012/13 before giving back all of that basis gain and more by 2017/18 when annual average basis dropped to -0.45. In 2018/19, a second period of basis gain started in which basis improved from the 2017/18 low and improved to +0.42/bu during the 2022/23 marketing year. Since then, NW IA corn basis has dropped back to -0.37 in 2025/26. Since 2000/01 there is an overall upward trend in NW IA corn basis of 1.1 cents per year. In the 2025/26 marketing year corn basis has dipped to the largest downside deviation from trend seen in the past 25 years. Absolute basis was lower in 2016/17 but the deviation from trend is lower now that it was 9 years ago.

Figure 1. Northwest IA Corn Basis, MY Annual Average

Seasonal corn basis for Northwest IA (Figure 2) generally bottoms for the marketing year in October with the October low 11...