Chris Hurt Stern Quotations

The National Weather Service is calling for intensification in that area and broadening of the drought into the central Plains and western Corn Belt by this spring.

Beef producers continued to expand the breeding herd for the second year. Beef cow numbers increased by 1 percent during 2005 after a small rise in 2004. The total number of cows increased by 338,000 head and the increase was concentrated in the western Corn Belt, where Missouri increased by 115,000 cows and Iowa by 40,000.

Perhaps this is signaling a reversal of the longer-run trend of the breeding herd moving away from the eastern Corn Belt. In 1990, 27 percent of the U.S. breeding herd was in the eastern Corn Belt. That portion declined steadily to a low of only 17.2 percent in 2004.

However, for hogs and poultry, the question is whether the increased price of corn will be offset by added value in the feed product that is returned. If not, this could mean some restructuring of the location of the U.S. and world animal industries. This appears to be particularly true for the eastern Corn Belt and the southeastern United States where hog, poultry and dairy are more dominant.