U.S. farmers are likely staring down another year in the red, faced with a familiar cycle: rising costs and weakening markets. For corn, the average total cost of producing an acre jumped 26% between 2021 and 2022, peaking at a record $928. Between 2021 and 2023, average corn and soybean prices stayed high, exceeding production costs. The current slump isn’t unprecedented: from 2014 to 2020, average corn prices also fell below production costs. soybean farmers are standing at a trade and financial precipice.”Data Harvest (formerly Graphic of the Week) is Investigate Midwest’s way of making complex agricultural data easy to understand.