# The corn + soybean-meal benchmark > Corn and soybean meal are the two prices every other feedstuff is measured against, corn for energy and soybean meal for protein. A feedstuff that delivers a nutrient below the benchmark's cost per pound is worth pricing into the ration; above it, the plain commodity is the cheaper buy. _Updated Jul 10, 2026._ Corn and soybean meal are the two prices every other feedstuff is measured against. Corn is the energy standard and soybean meal the protein standard, and between them they anchor almost every ration mixed in the country. Price any feedstuff and the first question a buyer asks is whether it beats those two on the nutrient it is bought for. ## Energy from corn, protein from soybean meal The split is clean. Corn is mostly starch, cheap digestible energy, and it is the yardstick for the energy in a ration. Soybean meal is the workhorse protein, roughly half crude protein on a dry-matter basis, and it is the yardstick for protein. Most feeds a buyer weighs are really a substitute for one or the other, or a bit of both. DDGS brings energy near corn and protein below soybean meal, so it gets measured against both at once. Corn and soybean meal do not move in lockstep, either. A short soybean crop can lift the protein benchmark while corn stays cheap, which changes what pencils, so the board is read against both prices rather than one. ## Break-even substitution The benchmark turns a price into a decision through break-even logic. Take corn's cost per pound of energy and soybean meal's cost per pound of protein, both worked out on a dry-matter basis. A feedstuff whose energy costs less than corn's, or whose protein costs less than soybean meal's, is delivering that nutrient below the benchmark and belongs in the conversation. Above the benchmark, the plain commodity is the cheaper buy that week. That break-even, not the sticker price, is the line the board is read against. ## Why the benchmark stays live The benchmark only works if the two anchor prices are current. Corn priced off a stale quote would make every feedstuff look cheaper against it than it really is, so this site reads corn from its live national quote, US number 2 yellow corn delivered to the ethanol plant, and holds soybean meal to the same freshness. Every percent-of-corn and percent-of-soybean-meal figure on the site divides by those live numbers, so a frozen anchor can never skew the board. ## Worked example [Chart: Corn (US #2 yellow) price ($/ton, as-fed)](https://the-ration.com/ingredient/corn) ([data](https://the-ration.com/ingredient/corn.md) — chart image: https://the-ration.com/charts/ingredient/corn/chart.png) The chart above is the live corn benchmark in dollars per ton. It is the denominator behind every energy figure on the site: when a feed shows as 90 percent of corn on energy, it is at 90 percent of this number's cost per pound of energy. Watch corn and soybean meal move and you are watching the line every feedstuff is judged against. The compare-feeds guide puts the two together. The Ration prices corn and soybean meal from the live USDA record and measures every feedstuff against them. It reports the benchmark; it does not forecast where corn or soybean meal goes next. ## Related data + guides - [Corn benchmark](https://the-ration.com/ingredient/corn) - [Soybean meal benchmark](https://the-ration.com/ingredient/soybean-meal) - [How to compare feed ingredients](https://the-ration.com/guides/how-to-compare-feed-ingredients-on-protein-and-energy) ## Common questions ### Why are corn and soybean meal the feed benchmarks? Corn is the cheap-energy standard and soybean meal the protein standard, and nearly every ration leans on the two. Most other feedstuffs substitute for one or both, so they are priced against them. ### What is break-even substitution in feed? The point where a feedstuff delivers a nutrient at the same cost as the benchmark. Below corn's cost per pound of energy, or soybean meal's cost per pound of protein, the substitute is the cheaper buy. ### Does the corn benchmark use the cash corn price? This site uses the live national quote for US number 2 yellow corn delivered to the ethanol plant, kept current so every percent-of-corn figure divides by a real, up-to-date number. --- Canonical URL: https://the-ration.com/guides/the-corn-and-soybean-meal-benchmark