Budget cuts, low prices are the story of '09
Janet Kubat Willette
Date Modified: 01/14/2010 12:25 PM
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Agri News staff writer
The last year was tough for many.
Livestock producers struggled with low prices, job losses continued to plague the nation and the country's infrastructure crumbled further.
Pork producers endured another year of below cost of production prices. Just when prices were beginning to head upward, H1N1 was diagnosed. This caused some countries to ban the import of United States pork and sent the price of pork plummeting.
Dairy producers asked for help at meeting after meeting after they failed to earn enough in their milk checks to pay the bills. The government came through with an announcement timed for Christmas that producers would get money through the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment Program. Payments were based on how much milk a dairy produced and sold between February and July 2009.
Crop farmers did OK, but farm business management instructors have cautioned them that pain in one sector of agriculture tends to spread.
Indeed, it spread through the ethanol industry. VeraSun's bankruptcy, filed on Halloween 2008, continued to be in the news in 2009.
As 2010 dawned, all the former VeraSun plants were operating. The plants have a variety of owners, some are cooperatives and some are not, and the farmers who had contracts with the plants lost.
Agriprocessors also continued to be in the news. The Postville, Iowa, slaughter facility was the site of an Immigration and Naturalization Service raid in May 2008 and in November 2009 company official Sholom Rubashkin was convicted of 86 financial charges. Another federal trial on 72 immigration charges is pending, so Agriprocessors will likely continue to be in the news in 2010.
Also likely to be in the news this year are changes to Extension. Several changes took effect Jan. 1 in Iowa and in Minnesota, two regional Extension offices closed in 2009. Continued tight government budgets will no doubt continue to keep the future of this institution in limbo.
Looking ahead to 2010, tight government budgets will probably be the subject of more than a few stories. Already, the Minnesota Legislature is faced with a budget deficit. Gov. Tim Pawlenty's refusal to raise taxes means that the Legislature will need to make additional cuts to balance the budget. That means Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, and Sen. Jim Vickerman, DFL-Tracy, will have their hands full trying to keep the agricultural budget from taking a huge hit.
Settle in folks and hold on tight, it looks like 2010 might be quite a ride.