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Crop Report Indicates Surplus Leading to Low Prices     

By Brock Turner, IPB News | Published on in Agriculture, Business, Government
NPR photo

New data from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture confirms what many farmers have feared.  Prices for both corn and soybeans have fallen because of an increased supply and decreased demand. The Indiana Farm Bureau’s National Government Relations Director, Bob White, says he blames the situation largely on China’s retaliatory tariffs in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on a number of Chinese goods.

“You’ve extenuated that with the fact that well you’ve got a tariff problem out there, and basically that leads to a supply problem.  When you’ve got high supplies, you’ve got low prices.”

The number of soybean acres along with bushel per acre yields have also increased from last year. President Trump announced $12 billion in aid packages to farmers impacted by declining prices in July. Details for how the aid will be distributed are still unknown.