2015 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News.com March 26, 2015 7
The year producers
won the battle …
T
he 2014 Logan County harvest shattered all
the previous records with an average corn
yield of almost 231 bushels per acre and 63.7
bushels of soybeans per acre. Excellent weather
combined with new seed varieties continue to
push yields toward that magical 300 corn bushel
number. With such amazing yields, Logan
County farmers certainly won the battle.
But other producers across the country and across
the world won the production battle too. When
everyone is a winner, prices take a beating.
What does this mean? Even though the 2014
Logan County corn crop was 16.5% larger than
the 2013 crop, here in the county it was worth
$18.5 million dollars less than the 2013 crop.
This means that Logan County farmers got less
money for more bushels than they did in 2013
and much less than they got in 2012. Less dollars
for more product might be an indicator that we
are losing the war. Overall, this means there are
$18.5 million dollars less in our local economy.
Even though corn is king, producers across the
county seemed to make out better on soybeans
this year than they did on corn. 2014 estimates
range from $15 to $100 loss per acre on corn, and
small gains on soybeans.
Since corn is hovering in that $3.50 - $4.00
range, producers across the world in such places
as Ukraine and Brazil have continued to add corn
and bean acres, thereby directly competing for
export markets. With such competition, most
of the Logan County production went to local
markets in 2014: for ethanol and feed production.
Growing foreign production and lower demand in
consuming nations likely means more of the same
for 2015. And these among other factors have
sent pricing into a downward spiral.
Predictions for the 2015 production year include
more acreage put into corn and bean production
in this and competing countries, lowering or
plateauing production levels of ethanol due
to changing legislation, higher value of the
American dollar, and continued limits on GMOs
in the EU, Japan and China. These factors lead
to the conclusion that we might have more of
the same in the 2015 production year: higher
production and lower prices.
Continued to page 8
