(Grand Island Independent) — As feed costs for Nebraska's livestock industry skyrocket, the Nebraska Farm Bureau is urging the USDA to provide crop-insurance flexibility to encourage feed-crop production on wet fields. Widespread rain and flooding have caused corn and soybean prices to skyrocket as demand increases worldwide. Corn is edging near $8 per bushel and soybeans near $15 per bushel. Especially hard hit is the pork industry. Retail pork prices will rise, and some producers will go out of business because of crop conditions and feed scarcity, the National Pork Producers Council warned last week. Just to break even, producers will need an increase of at least 17% in retail prices next year. That's due to the rise in feed costs, which account for 70% of the cost of raising a hog. Corn prices have increased by 124% and soybean prices by 94% since September. From October through April, pork producers lost an average of $30 on each hog marketed.
