News

SD farmer on the high-low markets

A long-time South Dakota farmer who is semi-retired is watching his two sons operate their business at a time of very high and very low prices.

Lewis Bainbridge and his sons grow corn, soybeans and wheat and run a cow-calf operation in southeast South Dakota. He told Brownfield Ag News this Monday they sold soybeans early and often last year but they do have a fair amount of corn yet to sell.

“The last I knew they sold some for $7.36 so for us that would be a record price.”

He says it will be interesting to see what happens moving forward because he expects they’re going to run out of soybeans and corn, too.

As for cattle prices, Bainbridge calls them horrible, “The price for cattle is unbelievably bad when you factor in the price of the corn and everything there.”

And he says the marketing is really tough for cattle producers, “We sell feeder cattle so ours have been gone for quite awhile and we got a reasonable price for them but the price of fat cattle now and in June is absolutely terrible.”

Bainbridge says he feels for his farmer friends who have a lot of livestock.