CoBank Says Agriculture Faces Significant Global Challenges

A new report by CoBank says oversupply and lower exports will continue to plague the U.S. agricultural industry for the remainder of 2016. The new Quarterly Rural Economic Review suggests those factors will result in a further, but modest decline in farm revenue for 2016. The increasing global inventory of commodities such as corn, along with lower exports, forced U.S. farm income to plummet by 25 percent last year to $93 billion. The decrease follows farm revenue averaging more than $124 billion in the previous four years. CoBank says the strong dollar will continue to hamper U.S. exports and exert downward pressure on commodities prices. Meat prices should also decline in response to what are expected to be record animal protein production levels. Dairy prices have not hit bottom and will continue to fall for the foreseeable future, according to the report.

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