Prepare For Change in 2014

On this last day of the year, a pundit shares that both corn farmers and cattlemen should prepare for a change in the year to come. Ag Resource Company President Dan Basse he says record corn crops, sufficient ending stocks and export competition - along with flat ethanol demand - will push corn prices lower.

Basse: "We are preparing our producers anywhere for corn prices to drop to $3.25 to $4.50 for multiple years and that the grain farmer is going to go through a much more difficult landscape than what he has seen in the last seven years."

Basse expects corn acreage to scale back in response. That's good news for producers looking for pasture and forage.

Basse: "So this corn grab -- if you will -- of land for the last seven years will change. As we start to see beef profitability return, the cow-calf man will be stimulated we are already looking at record large cow-calf profits. And that will cause, of course, land to transition back into pasture -- lower cost producing crop and we will see more of those acres across the Plains between 2014 and 2015."

Cowherd expansion has already started and Basse predicts three more years of profit at the cow-calf level. But what's good news for cattlemen also increases the responsibility to deliver a high quality product.

Basse: "Just because grain prices coming down and feed prices are declining doesn't mean we should ever look beyond quality because the consumer is going to be spending more and more for beef and demanding more of us in terms of producers and our productive capacity."