Corn and soybean markets experienced significant volatility in the 2004/2005 marketing year. The combinations of drought, low river levels, export disruptions from hurricane Katrina, and better than expected yields all contributed to the volatility. As one might expect, the most attractive prices for both old crop and new crop occurred in the summer months when producers were most concerned with poor yields, and then fell quickly as the export pace was disrupted and actual yields came in well above initial expectations. Thus, while prices were quite attractive early in the production season, most producers were reluctant to market new crop grain, and ended up facing low prices and abnormally weak basis levels at harvest. Problems were compounded by a large carryover from 2004, resulting in significant strains on storage facilities and forced use of non-conventional storage strategies.