Basis Calculator

Basis is cash price minus futures price, and local cash bids typically sit below the exchange futures price because the futures contract reflects a delivery point (often a major terminal) while your local elevator's bid also has to cover transportation to that terminal, local storage costs, and local supply and demand. A negative basis simply means the local cash price is under the futures price, which is the normal condition in most grain-producing regions rather than a sign anything is wrong.

A positive Basis vs Historical reading means your current local basis is stronger (less negative, or possibly positive) than the historical average for this time of year, which usually reflects tighter local supply, strong local demand, or transportation bottlenecks pushing up what local buyers are willing to pay relative to futures. Many grain marketers treat a stronger-than-normal basis as a favorable signal to sell into the cash market rather than only watching the outright futures price.

Revenue Delta vs Normal compares your total revenue at the current cash price against what you would have earned selling the same bushels at the historical basis level (applied to today's futures price), converting an abstract basis comparison into a concrete dollar figure for your specific bushel quantity. A positive delta means today's basis is putting more money in your pocket than a typical year would, which is useful context alongside the outright price level when deciding whether to sell now or wait.

Current Basis is defined strictly as cash price minus futures price -- a per-bushel price relationship -- so it doesn't depend on how many bushels you're selling or what the historical average basis has been. Bushels to sell only comes into play once the calculator converts that per-bushel basis into total revenue and revenue delta figures, and historical basis is used only as a comparison point for the Basis vs Historical and Revenue Delta outputs, not to compute the current basis itself.