Recently, the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics released its Market and Financial Outlook for Production Agriculture in Nebraska. The report highlights market, financial, and net farm income expectations for crop and livestock sectors in Nebraska for 2014. 

Data used in the report was gathered during late January and early February. Now new information has entered the market, causing a change to our 2014 cash receipts forecast. The most important piece of information to change is grain prices with corn price increasing 11%, soybean price increasing 12%, and wheat price increasing 29%. 

A variety of factors have pushed prices higher since January. For corn, planting season weather and strong consumption has led to higher prices.  For soybeans, strong U.S. and world demand appears to be the primary driver of higher prices.   For wheat, the poor crop conditions coupled with adverse weather conditions (i.e., frost and drought) have led to a strong rally in prices. 

Using current prices, our cash receipts from crops forecast increases by 12% to $11,327 billion.  If realized, 2014 cash from crops would be higher than found in 2013.

Cory Walters
UNL Extension Crop Economist