Agricultural News
With No End in Sight to Government Shutdown, Market Watcher Derrell Peel Offers This Advice
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 10:55:04 CST
Over this past weekend, President Donald Trump delivered to Congressional Democrats a comprehensive package offer that included a path forward to ending the partial shutdown and fully reopening government. The President outlined that package deal Saturday afternoon to the American public in a national address, but before he ever uttered a single word - Speaker of the US House Nancy Pelosi had taken to social media to reject Trump's offer to compromise. As a result, it seems there is no end in sight to the shutdown which includes the US Department of Agriculture. And, as it continues, the shutdown is starting to have a real impact on agricultural producers. According to Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel, the most concerning thing for cattle producers, is the data not being collected and distributed.
"The biggest impact for agricultural markets is the affect of NASS being shut down. It's not on that, because some of the trade data comes from other sources - but the one thing that is positive in this situation is that AMS has remained open, so, we continue to get market price reports. But, we're not getting any of the NASS reports," Peel said, listing some that were expected this month including the various crop reports, the monthly cattle on feed report and the highly anticipated cattle inventory that was due at the end of the month - none of which will be published now - at least for the time being. "So, it begins to be an impact and the impacts accumulate as we go forward if we don't get back on track and begin picking up some this information."
While these reports and the data collection deadlines now delayed for the foreseeable future, the question remains as to exactly when the industry can expect to have access to this vital information that many producers use to plan for their year ahead. With the answer to that question a mystery to everyone, Peel advises producers not to make any changes to what they are already doing and ride things out with hope that the shutdown will soon be resolved
"In general, I would say don't change what you're plans are at this point. We do have more uncertainty about these things, so you might to be prepared to review these things when you do get that information," he said. "Hopefully, we get caught up and get that at some point. But, we are still getting price data - so we are monitoring the ongoing flow of markets in the short run and again that look fairly positive."
Listen to Peel offer his analysis of the current market situation, the impact the government shutdown is having on them and his advice for producers affected by all of this, with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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