The graphs examine trends regarding transportation used to move grains grown for the food and feed industry in domestic and foreign markets. Please note that when some graphs are filtered by mode, data from 1984 are only available.

This data set contains rail tariff rates by railroad, commodity (corn, soybeans, and wheat), and train type, for select origin/destination pairs. These data are collected monthly from individual railroad websites.

Prices are a fundamental component of exchange and have long been important to the functioning of agricultural markets. Grain prices are closely related to grain transportation, where the supply and demand for grain simultaneously determines both the price of grain, as well as the demand for grain transportation.

This data has corn, soybean, and wheat prices for a variety of locations. These include origins—such as Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and many others—and destinations, such as the Pacific Northwest, Louisiana Gulf, Texas Gulf, and Atlantic Coast.

The data come from three sources: USDA-AMS Market News price reports, GeoGrain, and U.S. Wheat Associates. Links are included below. GeoGrain offers granular data for purchase. The GeoGrain data here is an average of those granular prices for a given state (and the "Southeast" region, which combines Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama).

This is one of three companion datasets. The other two are grain basis (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/v85y-3hep) and grain price spreads (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/an4w-mnp7). These datasets are separate, because the coverage lengths differ and missing values are removed (e.g., there needs to be a cash price and a futures price to have a basis price).

Basis reflects both local and global supply and demand forces. It is calculated as the difference between the local cash price and the futures price. It affects when and where many grain producers and shippers buy and sell grain. Many factors affect basis—such as local supplies, storage and transportation availability, and global demand—and they interact in complex ways. How changes in basis manifest in transportation is likewise complex and not always direct. For instance, an increase in current demand will drive cash prices up relative to future prices, and increase basis. At the same time, grain will enter the transportation system to fulfill that demand. However, grain supplies also affect basis, but will have the opposite effect on transportation. During harvest, the increase in the supply of grain pushes down cash prices relative to futures prices, and basis weakens, but the demand for transportation increases to move the supplies.

For more information on how basis is linked to transportation, see the story, "Grain Prices, Basis, and Transportation" (https://agtransport.usda.gov/stories/s/sjmk-tkh6), and links below for research on the topic.

This data has corn, soybean, and wheat basis for a variety of locations. These include origins—such as Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and many others—and destinations, such as the Pacific Northwest, Louisiana Gulf, Texas Gulf, and Atlantic Coast.

This is one of three companion datasets. The other two are grain prices (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/g92w-8cn7) and grain price spreads (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/an4w-mnp7). These datasets are separate, because the coverage lengths differ and missing values are removed (e.g., there needs to be a cash price and a futures price to have a basis price).

The cash price comes from the grain prices dataset and the futures price comes from the appropriate futures market, which is Chicago Board of Trade (CME Group) for corn, soybeans, and soft red winter wheat; Kansas City Board of Trade (CME Group) for hard red winter wheat; and the Minneapolis Grain Exchange for hard red spring wheat.

A "spread" can have multiple meanings, but it generally implies a difference between two comparable measures. These can be differences across space, across time, or across anything with a similar attribute. For example, in the stock market, there is a spread between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept.

In this dataset, spread refers to differences in prices between two locations, an origin (e.g., Illinois, Iowa, etc.) and a destination (e.g., Louisiana Gulf, Pacific Northwest, etc.). Mathematically, it is the destination price minus the origin price.

Price spreads are closely linked to transportation. They tend to reflect the costs of moving goods from one point to another, all else constant. Fluctuations in spreads can change the flow of goods (where it may be more profitable to ship to a different location), as well as indicate changes in transportation availability (e.g., disruptions). For more information on how price spreads are linked to transportation, see the story, "Grain Prices, Basis, and Transportation" (https://agtransport.usda.gov/stories/s/sjmk-tkh6).

This is one of three companion datasets. The other two are grain prices (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/g92w-8cn7) and grain basis (https://agtransport.usda.gov/d/v85y-3hep). These datasets are separate, because the coverage lengths differ and missing values are removed (e.g., there needs to be a cash price and a futures price to have a basis price, and there needs to be both an origin and a destination to have a price spread).

The origin and destination prices come from the grain prices dataset.

The data represents total U.S. grain movements involving barge, rail and truck by commodity and market type; starting from 1984.

The data represents U.S. corn, soybeans, and wheat production starting from 1978.