News

Farm margins narrowed in October

The Index of Prices Received by Farmers in October fell 8.4 percent from September.  The Crop Index fell 10 percent while the Livestock Index increased 4 percent.  Lower prices for soybeans, corn and milk more than offset higher prices for hogs, cattle and calves.

The average price for corn in October was $3.28 per bushel down 20 cents from September.  Soybeans dropped $1.26 to average $9.64, all wheat slipped 14 cents to $5.60 per bushel and the all-hay price was $3.00 lower at $173 per ton.

On the livestock side: hogs increased $4.30 to average $80 per hundredweight.  Beef cattle increased $2.00 to $159 per hundredweight. Eggs increased 10.9 cents to 93.4 cents per dozen, broilers were a penny higher at 67 cents per pound and turkeys were up 3.9 cents at 84.1 cents per pound. The October all-milk price down 40 cents at $25.30 per hundredweight.  The October Milk-to-Feed ratio is 3.07 compared to 2.97 in September and 2.1 in October of last year.

The October Index of Prices Paid by Farmers was unchanged from September.  The higher prices farmers paid for feeder cattle, feeder pigs, milk cows and supplements were offset by lower prices for concentrates, feed grains, diesel and gasoline.