Quarterly Report

Quarterly Report

Quarterly Update. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Well here it is, the end of another quarter and our friends at Northwest Farm Credit Services have taken a snapshot of the ag industry. Michael Stolp Vice President for Market Research and Development has a quick overview.

STOLP: A cool wet spring was really our hallmark of our start to 2011. Well begin with a discussion of our livestock markets and as we look to the cattle market, cattle market prices are still strong. Part of that strength comes from really tight supplies of feeder cattle and also uncertainty and volatility in feed markets. As we look at the dairy market the dairy market has improved. Specifically milk prices have improved and we see producers receiving strong milk prices but at the same time feed prices have risen in step. Accordingly, although positive, dairy producers margins continue to find some compression.One of those key feed components that has increased is hay. If you live in the northwest you know it has been rainy this spring and it was tough getting that first cutting out. Accordingly supplies of high quality, dairy quality hay are tight and accordingly hay prices strong and approaching prices last seen in 2008. As we move to our field crops the wheat crop throughout the northwest overall looks good. This is despite producers struggles with rust or stripe rust this spring and having to spray for that. Interestingly in the areas that are dry wheat crops look average to certainly above average but in areas that are historically wet crops are described as average or even slightly below average given an unfamiliar problem, too much rain. When we look to our row crops the potato crop has caught up given some warmer temperatures after a slow start this spring. Additionally potato prices on old crop 2010 potatoes are really strong. Likewise if we look at the sugar beets, the sugar beet crop has also caught up bolstered by warmer temperatures. The wine/vineyard as we go into our permanent crops, that’s a crop that was impacted last winter by 2 severe freezes. And as the crop has developed this spring certainly the results of those freezes are still playing out but vineyard producers overall expect a smaller crop in 2011 given some of those damages. The cherry crop was certainly later than expected in the northwest and the crop size projections continue to shrink are likely to be closer to 14-million box crop versus a 17.2-million that was originally projected. Overall cherry prices remain strong and there is a little variability but it should be a decent year for our cherry producers. And finally when considering our apple crop, apple prices throughout the 2010/2011 marketing year have been good for our producers and looking forward growing conditions here in recent days have been near ideal for the 2011 apple crop.

Stolp says overall they call it cautious optimism for most of the markets.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. 

Previous ReportSmall Hydro
Next ReportHeat Wave Affecting Food Prices