The other day I looked at the records for the all-time highs for the corn futures market. This inspired me to do the same for soybeans and each of the three wheat markets. The following tables show the all-time highest ever recorded prices for the nearby futures contract, and the highest ever closing prices for the nearby contracts.
Nearby futures contracts, highest ever recorded prices
| Commodity | Contract delivery month | Price ($/bu.) | Date | April 5, 2011 |
| Corn | July’08 | $7.625 | June 27, 2008 | $7.7025 new record! |
| Soybeans | August’08 | $16.52 | July 3, 2008 | $13.82 |
| Chicago wheat | May’08 | $13.18 | March 13, 2008 | $7.885 |
| Kansas City wheat | March’08 | $13.70 | February 27, 2008 | $9.53 |
| Minneapolis wheat | March’08 | $25.00 | February 27, 2008 | $9.6525 |
Note that yesterday’s market was an all-time high for futures prices in the corn market. While current soybean and wheat prices are high, these markets have a long ways to go to make new highs. The current soybean market is more than $2.50/bu. from all-time highs, while the Kansas City and Chicago wheat markets are about $4-5/bu. off the highs. I’ll never say never, but Minneapolis is a long, long ways from the all-time high of $25/bu.
Nearby futures contracts, highest ever recorded closing prices
| Commodity | Contract delivery month | Price ($/bu.) | Date | April 5, 2011 |
| Corn | July’08 | $7.5475 | June 27, 2008 | $7.6675 new record! |
| Soybeans | August’08 | $16.49 | July 3, 2008 | $13.7325 |
| Chicago wheat | March’08 | $12.80 | March 13, 2008 | $7.8625 |
| Kansas City wheat | March’08 | $13.37 | February 27, 2008 | $9.50 |
| Minneapolis wheat | March’08 | $24.00 | February 27, 2008 | $9.6525 |
I need to do the same analysis for a few other markets like oats, soybean meal and oil, live cattle and lean hogs.
Ed's World : Grain Marketing 
Of course everyone has different highest prices because whereas you are using august delivery for the highest prices, others use july which actually traded a little higher…. but doesn’t show on most people’s charts of that period. Sane thing frequently happens now with extremes in the pit when compared to extremes on the screen. Thanks non-the-less.
Dave Brew
By: Dave Brew on July 5, 2012
at 10:52 am