Short- and long-term agricultural planning price projections for North Dakota are available, says Ron Haugen, farm economist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.

The publication shows 2015 price projections for crops and livestock produced in the state and price estimates for future years. Price projections are given for the major crop commodities, including wheat, durum, oats, feed barley, malting barley, oil sunflowers, nonoil sunflowers, corn, soybeans, canola, flaxseed, winter wheat, dry beans, dry peas, lentils, alfalfa hay and mixed hay.

Price projections for livestock and livestock products include beef steers and heifers at various weights, cull cows, slaughter steers, slaughter hogs, slaughter ewes, slaughter lambs, feeder lambs and milk. The publication also provides historical prices as a reference.

“Crop prices show a large downturn from previous years, but livestock prices are up, especially beef prices, which are at record highs,” Haugen says. “The estimated short-term planning prices should be used as a guide in setting price expectations for 2015 production. These planning prices can be used for preparing annual enterprise budgets and annual whole-farm cash flow projections. The short-term prices should not be used for planning capital purchases or expansion alternatives that would extend beyond the next production year.”

To obtain this publication, “Plotting a Course 2015” (EC1090), call (701) 231-7882 or write to NDSU Agriculture Communication, Distribution Center, Dept. 7070, Box 6050, 10 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, or contact a county office of the NDSU Extension Service. Requests also may be faxed to (701) 231-7044 or emailed to NDSU.DistributionCenter@ndsu.edu. The publication is on the Web at http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/agecon/market/ec1090.pdf.

NDSU Agriculture Communication – Jan. 16, 2015