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FAPRI says 2014 has been interesting year

The director of the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Institute (FAPRI) says it’s been an interesting year – with record corn and soybean crops that have caused major changes in agricultural markets, “Prices that were ready well off of the drought level peaks of 2012 have now come down to almost half of that level in the case of corn. That’s had big effects not just on crop producers but, of course, for the livestock industry as well – reducing their costs of production, making the production of beef, pork, chicken and milk more profitable.”

And, Pat Westhoff tells Brownfield that’s not all, “Throw in the fact that we’ve had some disease problems, we’ve had strong demands for livestock products. We’ve gone from a world where the returns to crop producers were fantastic and for livestock producers now it’s just the reverse.”

He says they were surprised by how high cattle prices peaked, “We’ll see if this is a start of a new trend or whether or not it’s a short-term correction.”

And, the opposite occurred for corn, says Westhoff, “Corn, on the other hand, we’ve seen some bump up in prices off their lows of harvest time. We’re a bit concerned that that price rebound may have been overdone a bit given what we think is the fundamental supply and demand situation out there.”

As for 2015, Westhoff says, weather will be a major factor as always.

AUDIO:  Interview with Pat Westhoff (3:00 mp3) at 2014 Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture: