Illinois Corn Prices in 2025

Apr 25, 2025

By Lyndi Allen

As planting begins, Illinois corn farmers are navigating a constantly changing market. Despite some price increases earlier in the year, futures prices remain below break-even levels, making it difficult for growers to cover the full cost of production.

According to farmdoc daily’s revised 2025 crop budgets, recent data shows break-even prices to cover nonland costs remain in the range of $3.17 to $3.66 per bushel for corn and break-even prices to cover total costs (non-land plus average cash rent) range from $4.60 to $4.66 for corn.

A farmdoc daily analysis shows that 2025 marks one of the few years since 2000 where the break-even price for corn exceeds the projected market price, meaning that even efficient producers are likely to see losses.

The fix to this economic downturn is to build demand for U.S. corn, a measure that Congress could do today by passing year-round E15 legislation. Notably, this solution also costs no money for taxpayers. Congress could drive even more demand for corn by passing a high-octane fuel policy that would set a new certification fuel with higher octane, driving fuel efficiency. Neither of these is an ethanol mandate; instead, these options open the marketplace for higher blends of ethanol.

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Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. We also have a part-time employee, Brock. My dad started the farm in 1980. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.