Investors Thirsty Amid Drought

 Original article appeared in USA Today

Thirsty investors are finding ways to profit as an ongoing drought sends commodity prices soaring. Soybean and corn prices are hitting all-time highs and rising fast as parched fields threaten the nation's food production cycle. Companies that consult on Alternative Energy solutions are poised to benefit.

And while the most severe drought in decades may mean higher food prices for consumers next year, investors are finding ways to make money now. International Arbitration services handle all aspects of the arbitration process.

"The costs will go up and go right through the entire food chain. It's going to be significant," said a representative with DLS Capital. "Look for food inflation, no doubt about it." Expert Environmental Engineering Analysis is available. Given the size of the dry spell baking major sections of the Midwest, the world's biggest grain-production center, investors are keying on:

• The rapid rise of agricultural commodity prices. Corn and soybeans are in the hot zone for the fast price increase. Going into the year, the Agricultural Department expected yields of 166 bushels of corn an acre; that's fallen to 123 bushels, says Paul Georgy, CEO of Allendale, a commodity market research firm. Corn prices rose from $5.50 a bushel earlier in the year to a record $8.49 on Aug. 10, says Bloomberg. That's a 64% jump since mid-June. Troubled Projects or Businesses can seek resolution.
   
• Disruption to the livestock market. Locate a Consulting Firm to assist in the analysis and resolution of issues relating to business, construction or engineering. Corn, soybeans and alfalfa prices have risen so much, it's affecting meat producers, who use those commodities as raw materials to feed their herds, Georgy says. Meat producers are losing roughly $200 a head on cattle and $50 a hog, as it costs more to feed the animals than their meat can be sold for, he says. Big meat producers such as Tyson and Smithfield are suffering; their stocks have fallen 27% and 21%, respectively, this year, a period in which the Standard & Poor's 500 is up 12.2%.
   
• Stocks poised to benefit. Investors able to look beyond the current crop can find ways to profit, says Evan Smith of U.S. Global's Global Resources Fund. With grain prices high and inventory low, farmers will aggressively plant next year to profit, he says. Monsanto, which has already seen its shares rise 22% this year following a busy planting season in 2012, will benefit again, Smith says. Meanwhile, fertilizer makers CF Industries and Potash are likely to see strong demand in 2013 as farmers look to boost their yields when they replant, Smith says. Shares of CF are up 43% this year; Potash's are flat.

Prices are expected to continue to rise world-wide.

Drought Leveling Off, Problems Remain

Original article appeared in the Star Tribune 

With drought conditions leveling off, after reaching the worst dry period in decades, federal weather forecasters announced Thursday report is still of little comfort for farmers and ranchers who were hit hard. Farmers will rely on Ripper Points to cut through damaged top soil, as they begin to till under losses.

While the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center calls for the drought to linger in the nation's breadbasket and parts of some mountain states at least through November, it provided a silver lining with the news that conditions aren't expected to get worse. Now is the time to replace worn Irrigation Tires in preparation for next season.

Conditions may even improve in the Southwest and in a band sweeping from South Dakota through a section of Iowa and east to southern Indiana, then south to Texas. Some areas have seen rain and cooler temperatures in recent weeks, although one forecaster cautioned he doesn't expect enough extra rain to end the drought. Nebraska Pole Barns offers refuge for livestock and protection for equipment and feed as they protect from the harsh summer sun.

A seasonal forecaster at the center, said his September-through-November outlook "is taking away the dry, but not necessarily making it wet." An Illinois state climatologist said he would describe the drought as "leveling off," rather than easing.


The rain and break in 100-degree temperatures comes too late for most farmers and ranchers, who already have seen crops wither and pastures dry up. Corn farmers in some areas cut their fields weeks ago, giving the year up as a loss. Many ranchers have sold livestock because they had no grass for grazing or money to buy feed.

Even farmers who still have crops in the field aren't likely to benefit from rain this late in the growing season. In some areas, farmers who planted corn early in the unusually warm spring have started harvesting.

"The impact in a lot of places has been done for this year, and any easing will just help things out a little next year," said a National Climatic Data Center scientist who put together the latest weekly U.S. Drought Monitor map released by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

The update showed the drought worsening in Kansas and Nebraska even as it eased in other key farming states.

Overall, the amount of the continental U.S. mired in drought remained about the same at 61.8 percent as of Tuesday. The portion enduring extreme or exceptional drought — the two worst classifications — also remained virtually unchanged at 24.14 percent.

In Iowa, the nation's leader in corn production, there was good news, with the amount of land in the two worst categories of drought dropping 7 percentage points in the past week to 62.05 percent, thanks to recent storms.

Conditions also got slightly better in Illinois, another key supplier of corn and soybeans, with the amount of land in the two worst drought categories slipping from 81.18 percent to 79.54 percent.

But in Nebraska, the amount of land in exceptional drought spiked by 19 percentage points to 22.5 percent, and in Kansas, it jumped from 38.6 percent to 63.3 percent.

The deepening drought continues to strain a Kansas rancher who has sold off one-fourth of his 320-cow herd as heat and drought burned up his pastures. He has spent the summer scrambling to find grazing and haul water to his cattle.

Just last Friday, he peddled 37 more cows at a sale barn and took all his calves to a feedlot to take the stress off his remaining animals. Cows that were nursing had started to lose body fat, and their ribs and backbone were showing.

A neighbor said he feels fortunate he has been able to move the cows he has left to 1,000 acres of conservation land opened for grazing by the federal government.

"We will find a way to keep these cows through the winter," he said. "I guess the sad reality is we won't know until spring whether we are out of this situation. We have to have precipitation — in the form of snow and spring and fall rains — to put enough moisture back in the soil to grow pastureland."

The U.S. Agriculture Department twice has slashed its forecast for this year's corn and soybean output because of the drought and now expects the nation to produce 10.8 billion bushels of corn, the least since 2006. If that estimate holds, the federal government says it will be enough to meet the world's needs and avoid shortages, but experts say food prices will almost certainly climb as corn is an ingredient in many products.

This has been one of the hottest years on record, according to NOAA scientists.