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Lack of market information troublesome

The ongoing government shutdown is delaying the release of information farmers, ranchers, and the market rely on daily.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says the lack of reliable private sources for the information that goes missing information during the shutdown puts producers and the entire ag industry at a disadvantage.  “Trying to figure out what is happening in the marketplace day-to-day gets harder and harder,” he says.  “We could start to see situations where without these reports one has to be more concerned about whether price determination is happening accurately.”

He tells Brownfield his biggest concern is the lack of export and trade data.  “We’re frankly going to run in the blind here for several weeks,” he says.  “No monthly data as well as no weekly data.  Hopefully the autopilot that we have might suggest we’ll keep growing.  But that data is critical for us as we think about price determination this year.”

Brown says the January Cattle on Feed and Cattle Inventory reports are also in jeopardy.  “The longer we go, the more apt we are to move straight to the July Cattle Inventory report,” he says.  “That’s okay, but that January report is the critical one for the industry.”