Tighter Margins in 2016

Earlier this week at the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum and Ag Expo Washington State University Economist Dr. Randy Fortenbery shares what ag producers can expect in 2016

Fortenbery: "2016 unfortunately for a lot of agriculture in the United States is not going to be quite as attractive as 2015 which itself was not quite as good as 2014. So we've got another year or two that we need to think about tight margins be a little more cautious about that we think are attractive prices really look like in the coming years. A big part of what might happen beyond 2016 will be whether or not this Trans-Pacific Partnership the trade agreement that was signed by the President is actually ratified by the Congress or not. If not then our export situation — that affects beef, corn, wheat will be a bit of a challenge as well. If that gets ratified it doesn't mean that everything gets turned round and it's suddenly like 2012 but at least it puts us on a more level playing field going forward. So we have more opportunity to recover some of the exports we have lost in the last couple of years."

He mentioned that many wheat growers are sitting on a lot of farm stored wheat and should consider selling it rather than waiting for a sharp increase to wheat prices. He said unless something unforeseen and dramatic happens, there will not be a return to the higher prices we have seen in the past several years.