Soybean market tough on farmers

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By KRISTIN JIROVSKY / Beatrice Daily Sun

BEATRICE, Neb. — Steve Faxon didn’t seem surprised when he said there were no bids for soybeans Friday.

Faxon, a member of the Southeast Nebraska Cooperative Co., said that soybeans have been down the last two weeks.

The yield, however, has been higher than expected — with estimated averages just under 40 bushels per acre, according to Victor Bohuslavsky, executive director for the Nebraska Soybean Association.

The closing price for beans at Southeast co-op Thursday was $8.70 per bushel. No price was given Friday because of the lack of bids. He said that it’s going to be like that at all area co-ops.

July was the peak for soybean markets, Bohuslavsky said.

“We’ve lost 40, nearing 50 percent (of the price of soybeans) since then,” he said.

In July, the price was $14 to $15 per bushel.

Bohuslavsky blames the failing markets and the economy for the low soybean prices.

“Foreign countries we used to export to are having financial trouble, so they’re not buying,” he said.

With such a low soybean price, farmers are losing a lot of revenue.

“It’s bad for the entire community,” he said.

If farmers lose revenue, he said, that means that they won’t be able to pay back high loans, purchase new machinery or the parts to fix old machinery, and with high fuel prices, it will be hard to keep the farm machines running.

The co-op reported a PCP of $8.94 on Friday. The PCP, or Posted County Price, at most times helps farmers save money, Steve Stark of the USDA Farm Service Agency said.

Farmers use their grain as collateral, and when the PCP is below the price they paid for their loan, they can repay the loan at the lower price. In this case, since it is above the loan price, farmers will just pay off their loan based on what they purchased it at.

“Right now, it’s just a moot point,” Stark said.

Bohuslavsky said the market won’t bounce back until economies around the world do.

“It won’t come back up until people start buying the beans again,” he said.