July 10, 2012

Ag producers need up-to-date information about local cash markets to make informed marketing decisions. To create a simple way to access area cash prices, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Panhandle Research and Extension Center has begun compiling and releasing a Monthly Panhandle Crop Report.

This report will include local data for corn, wheat, proso millet, pinto beans and great northern beans, and state average price data for sorghum and alfalfa, with data collected from local elevators, the  Kansas City Board of Trade, the Chicago Board of Trade and NASS Nebraska Field Office.

Corn and wheat reports will include monthly average local elevator prices, respective futures prices and resulting basis. The remaining crops will report monthly average cash prices. Each commodity  section will also report the previous 10 years of data that will allow producers to view area monthly price trends as well as the 5-year and 10-year price average for each month.

The Monthly Panhandle Crop Report can be viewed online at panhandle.unl.edu/panhandle_ag_econ. There are other ways to get easy access to the information online:

• Jessica Johnson, Extension Educator for agricultural economics, will be tweeting it from her Twitter account, PanhandleAgEcon.
• Facebook users can learn about it as soon as it’s posted by liking the UNL Extension in the Panhandle Facebook page. Once on Facebook, search for “UNL Extension Panhandle.”
• Plans are also in the works for setting up an e-mail listserv that will automatically notify subscribers each month when a new report is uploaded. When the listserv is established, it will be available via a link on the Monthly Panhandle Crop Report web page.

For more information contact Jessica Johnson at 308-632-1247, email jjohnson@unl.edu.

Dave Ostdiek, Communications Specialist
UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center