2022 Spring Farm Outlook

Page 22 Spring 2022 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March / April 2022 Spring 2022 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March / April 2022 Page 23 their annual rents. Producers will need to monitor fluctuation in commodity pricing as well as changes in farm assistance programs throughout the year. With the current conditions around the globe, producers and land owners can expect that higher commodity pricing will continue to impact the value of their land assets. But, as is always the case in agriculture, the bottom could fall out any time. Those who own and rent their land should enjoy the boom, but know that there is a strong possibility that their rental income will go back down as world issues resolve themselves. Those who are buying, are buying equity, but also need to be aware that farm values can drop, thus depleting that net worth they have worked to provide for the future. Regardless of the long range outlook the farm industry is still strong, and adjusting to the challenges before it. In talking with Dale Apperle, one notable comment bears repeating as it sums up our agriculture attitude in Logan County. “Seventy percent of the farmland is still bought by the farming community or local buyers,” he said. “It’s important to all of us that farmers believe in their business and reinvest their own money. It’s a good sign.” [Nila Smith] Resources: Information on 2021 Cash Rents with Implications for 2022 Information on 2021 Cash Rents with Implications for 2022 • farmdoc daily ( illinois.edu) M ost reports suggest that the animal feed market is expected to grow over the next several years. The US animal feed market size was valued at about US $72.6 billion in 2018, and originally expected to reach US $83.6 billion by 2024, representing a of 2.4% over the forecast period. That was in 2019. More recent reports suggest a steady CAGR increase 3.4% until 2028. But given that Covid-19 has proven to be such a problem for markets and predictions, how can that still be the case? Several different financial research companies have their own ideas as to how such growth could happen. For a little background, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), livestock and poultry account for over half of U.S. agricultural cash receipts. The total value often exceeds $100 billion per year. Additionally, trading data from the ITC suggests that the U.S. exported $2.8 billion worth of animal feed products to the global market in 2019, representing over 11% of the world’s total animal feed exports in the year. Furthermore, the Alltech Global Feed Survey 2021 report studied annual total feed production in 6,000 feed mills. These mills produced “214.4 million tons in 2019, and then increased in 2020 and reached 215.9 million tons. For comparison, China produced approximately 240 million tons in 2020. Brazil, third in world rankings for such production, produced almost 1/3 of the feed of these two countries.” So why is this growth happening? One reason is likely US corn production. According to a report published by The Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER); “corn made up slightly more than half (52%) of the total amount of compounded feed consumed in 2019. Corn combined with soybean meal and dried distillers’ grains represented more than 75% of all feed tonnage consumed in 2019.” The IFEEDER report works in tandem with a second report by economic and analysis firm Decision Innovation Solutions (DIS) to examine this data. DIS found that the “baseline consumption at the beginning of 2020 at 252.6 million tons (excluding forages and roughages) with an estimated value of $66.7 billion, under normal production circumstances without the pandemic; with Shakeup in worldwide animal feed demand Continue 8