MU Specialist Discusses Policy, Markets, Budgets at Crop Conference

Nov 13, 2024

Farmers and crop advisers attending the University of Missouri Extension Crop Conference will hear what to expect in agriculture in 2025. Ben Brown, MU Extension specialist in risk management, will look at what lies ahead in crop markets, input costs and agricultural policy during the Dec. 4-5 conference in Columbia.

Brown will review how crop markets changed over the past few months. “Commodity prices for U.S. grains and oilseeds have deteriorated from historically strong levels due to strong production in the United States and around the world,” Brown says. “The quantity demanded for commodities has expanded on lower prices, but the excess supply continues to weigh on prices received by producers.”

Brown also will give an overview of customizable row crop production budgets created by MU Extension. This includes separate budgets for southeastern Missouri. Enterprise budgets for 2025 show expectations for prices, production and input quantities. The 2025 budgets show a drop in fixed inputs like interest and machinery costs but increases in variable costs like seed and crop protection.

“Overall, the budgets estimate negative returns over total cost for Missouri producers,” says Brown. “For profitability to return to the sector, crop prices would need to increase, yields would need to be above average, or a combination of the two.”

Brown also looks ahead at changes in farm policy leadership. The Senate agriculture committee will have a new chairman and a new ranking member. There also will be a new Secretary of Agriculture who will likely lay out priorities he or she would like to see in a reauthorized farm bill.

Brown’s presentation is one of more than 15 offered by the state’s leading agricultural experts during the conference, says Kevin Bradley, MU Extension state weed scientist and longtime organizer of the event. The two-day event is Missouri’s premier agricultural conference for farmers and agricultural industry professionals to learn about timely topics.

The conference will be at a new location this year, the Columbia Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

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Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.