The news from USDA’s World Ag Outlook Board this week was further proof that farmers need more help to keep up with rising input costs for staple crops like corn.
Outlook Board Chair Mark Jekanowski says, “For the new crop year, we reduced our season-average farm price by ten cents per bushel, down to four dollars and 30 cents per bushel, and that would be down 35 cents, year over year.” Jekanowski adds that despite a slightly smaller production forecast, corn stocks will grow to over two billion bushels “And that would be up 220 million bushels from last year.”
Putting downward pressure on corn prices, now expected to fall this season by some seven-and-a-half percent. Soybeans will also see a slight stocks increase of 270 million bushels or one percent over last year. But Jekanowski says stiff global competition will weigh heavily on soybean prices.
He says, “We reduced our season average price for the new crop by 10 cents, currently forecast at 11 dollars and 10 cents per bushel, down a dollar-40.”
That’s an 11 percent decline. The House GOP farm bill would raise reference prices by 10 to 15 percent, but Senate Ag members have yet to agree on a bill, though Chair Debbie Stabenow has proposed a five percent hike for most covered crops, with 10 to 15 percent for some.
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau; courtesy of NAFB News Service
