What Will Push And Pull The Livestock Feed Market?
Some of you will remember party line phone systems in rural areas, where eight or more families shared one phone line and everyone had the capability of listening in on phone conversations of the folks down the road. (When Dad opened up a specialty seed operation, he quickly got tired of the neighbors overhearing his business and we got a private phone line. Fortunately, that was just before I started courting and using the phone as well.) While our conversation today is directed at the livestock producer who needs to lock in feed requirements at economical levels, the grain producer may be listening in on our party line and learning as well about the inverse economic relationship. The latest USDA statistics are aided by the August 1 crop report, which provided a relatively close estimate of the 2006 US corn and sorghum production. (By the way, corn production is healthy, but sorghum is anemic.) In the big picture, demand for feed grains will exceed production, but with the help of car
