If it's late summer, it's time to talk about pricing a corn crop standing in the field for corn silage. This is always a challenging question as there are a number of factors that contribute to the final price agreed upon by the buyer and seller that are challenging to quantify.

University of Illinois economists project net no-till farm operator returns for 2009 at minus $8 per acre for corn and minus $15 per acre for soybeans, the first negative returns for the decades beginning 1990 and 2000.