"Corn-To" Ratios

A “corn to” ratio is a way to measure the cost of an input relative to the price of corn. It is calculated by taking the price of an input (eg. A ton of fertilizer) and dividing it by the price per bushel of corn. The number you are left with is the bushels per unit of that input (eg. Bushels per ton). This ratio can be used to compare the relative cost of an input between two different time periods (year to year or month to month). The lower the ratio, the lower the relative cost (the fewer bushels it takes to “pay” for the input).

Below are histograms of our members’ 2019 Corn to ratios for Urea and UAN*. The gold line shows the cumulative percent of members that were at or below a given ratio bucket. You can use these to gauge your ratio relative to all our members.

For example, if you locked in a corn to urea ratio of 90 bu/ton, that would have put you in the top 25% of all members, meaning you needed fewer bushels of corn to pay for a ton of urea than 75% of our members. Contact your agronomist to lock in your “corn-to” ratio today!