(Lincoln Journal Star) -- Nebraska farmers and grain elevators are being saddled with tens of millions of dollars in extra costs as they try to protect themselves against the risks that go with volatile grain prices. Teacher pension funds and other institutional investors are creating some of that volatility and contributing to financial strains as they back away from the uncertainties of the stock market and turn to massive purchases of futures contracts for wheat and other crops that have been steadily increasing in value. Jim Stewart, a farm financial consultant in Lincoln and also part of a Lancaster County farming operation, said many grain elevators have responded to heavy financial pressure with an unprecedented decision. They're no longer willing to allow farmers to lock in prices for the bushels farmers will deliver from the 2008 harvest. Keith Olsen, a Grant farmer and president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation, is calling on federal regulators to intervene. Olsen said a major objective of an April 22 meeting at the Washington, D.C., offices of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is to explore the price impact institutional investors are having in futures markets.
