For farmers this is a blessing and a curse at the same time. For the individual farmer a bumper crop is good--more corn to sell at the anticipated market price. However, if ALL farmers experience a bumper crop then that will increase the supply of corn and lower the expect price of corn (per bushel). It is a catch 22 situation:
Farmers worry good corn crop could mean low prices
"Agricultural officials are projecting an 11 percent increase in the size of Wisconsin's corn harvest this year, a prediction that has farmers worried prices will drop too low for them to make a profit.
State projections call for corn yields of 162 bushels per acre, an increase of 16 bushels per acre from last year....
Richard Halopka, an agriculture agent in Clark County, noted that if prices are too low, farmers don't have to sell right away.
"One unique thing in this county is that we do have a fair amount of storage locally, which could get stretched if we have a bumper crop," he said....
I put together some slides to illustrate this excerpt from the article.
If you are teaching or learning the basics of Supply and Demand you may find it useful.
Distinguishing the difference between a change is Supply vs a change in Quantity Supplied (the same for Demand) is one of the most diffcult things to intuitively understand in an economics principles class. I hope it helps.
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