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Record Yield Predicted, Famers Concerned About Prices

Last updated on Wednesday, October 1, 2014

(COLUMBIA CITY) - As harvest begins across Indiana, experts are projecting a record yield for crops. It may sound great, but the projections discourage some area farmers.

WANE reports, experts say prime weather conditions contributed to a great supply of corn and soybeans in 2014. But it's driven their prices down to about half of where they were in 2012.

Michael Copp's family farms between 1,300 and 1,500 acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat in Whitley County. Copp said the amount of money it takes to farm has risen significantly. Coupled with the low crop prices this fall, he said some farmers are already considering changes for 2015.

"Just in the last week, I've had a number of farmers telling me as they calculate what the potential might be for next spring, they wonder if they can even afford to plant corn because of the high input costs and the low prices," he explained. "Those who have to sell at these current prices, it's going to be a real discouraging thing."

James Mintert is the director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. He said there's new hope for farmers in the U.S. Farm Bill passed by Congress in February. Mintert said over the next several months, farmers will be enrolling in programs that could help.

"It will provide some assistance with respect to helping to moderate some of the impact of price declines on farm income," Mintert said. "Crop farm income is going to be significantly lower in 2014 compared to 2013 and actually we think there's going to be another decline take place in 2015 as we continue to work our way through some pretty large supply values."

On the bright side, Mintert said the low crop prices are great for farmers who raise beef, pork, and chicken. It allows them to feed larger herds, which means customers could see lower meat prices over the next couple years.

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