University of Illinois agricultural economist Gary Schnitkey gave an update on the farm economy at the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau annual meeting last week, and the news overall was bleak.
“We’re seeing deteriorating financial conditions on many farms and we’re likely to continue to see that as long as we have corn prices below four dollars a bushel,” said Schnitkey.
However, those lower corn prices are helping to increase ethanol production, even as market growth in the United States is slowing. “We’ve had increasing petroleum prices and pretty low corn prices so that does make the margins of ethanol production pretty good right now,” said Schnitkey, who expects much of the increased production to head to the export market.
Learn more in this interview: Interview with Gary Schnitkey, Univ. of Ill