2017 Fall Farm Outlook

Page 8 Oct. 25, 2017 2017 Logan County Fall Farm Outlook Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Specialty enterprises continue to increase in numbers. These enterprises may be as traditional as selling freezer meat, or as different as selling organic herbs at the farmers market. A trip through a farmers market shows the vast array of products being produced locally, and that is the real center of the specialty enterprises. Locally grown and direct marketed are buzz words in the industry, and have often times replaced organic as major criteria in purchases made by consumers. The main points are knowing who is producing your food, and being able to talk to them about how they produce items. The outlook for 2018 is probably best described as cautiously optimistic, and is definitely better than one would have thought earlier this summer. Bountiful yields have put a “spring in the step” of local producers, as well as many though the Midwest. The increase in production has translated into higher income, but will also weigh on future markets. In this global market, there are many production regions to contribute to the supply. Large harvests in all regions do put a damper on higher prices. We also have to remember farming is one of the few enterprises where someone else sets the prices received for what the farmers produce. Increased utilization of the crops then becomes the name of the game. Whether those uses are ethanol, bio diesel, increased livestock feed use, or other commercial and food uses, also depend on market factors. Farmers will once again work on maximizing income through the many options available to them, and the ingenuity of the producers will go a long way to ensuring a favorable outcome once again.