Kayla Niner
Published: October 29, 2008

Local farmer, Ronald Hartman, describes this past year as a rollercoaster ride, yet somehow he’s coming out on top.

“Whether it was the will of God, luck, or a combination of both, some of it has to do with the weather, we have had a very good weather year, believe it or not,” Hartman said.

Despite the late planting season, Hartman’s crops are okay, but market prices are dropping.

Hartman said, “The Futures (a publication) which you watch for future trends in the markets are telling us that milk is probably going to go down somewhat.”

Hartman expects the dairy prices in the store to go down a few cents, but milk isn’t the only price that is going down.

Norm Weber, of Weber Processing Inc, said “You know a month or two ago you had cattle over a dollar, and now they have gone down almost like gas prices and now it’s down somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 or 85 cents.”

But the question everyone is asking is when are prices going to go back up?

“I’ve been here full time since 57 and part time since 47, if I knew the answer to that I would not have to be working today, believe me,” Weber said with a laugh.

Prices of crops and livestock are changing so frequently, that it is proven to be an interesting year.

“It’s something that no one in this industry has seen in their life time and now we’re seeing it all within a year,” Hartman said.

According to Hartman, it’s still too early to predict what the next few months will bring.

Kayla Niner can be reached at Kayla.Niner@loras.edu