• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Agriculture / Economist: overall flood impact on livestock industries hard to gauge

Economist: overall flood impact on livestock industries hard to gauge

March 28, 2019 By Radio Iowa Contributor

The Floyd River between Le Mars and Merrill.

Closed interstate highways and submerged train tracks are creating challenges for moving grain and livestock.

But Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition says washed-out county bridges and impassable gravel roads are equally important because local infrastructure connects farms to global markets. “And it’s also the system that is largely the responsibility of local and county government and these are entities that are not flush with money,” Steenhoek says.

Iowa State University livestock economist Lee Schulz says some livestock trucks early on had to take longer routes or go to different meatpacking plants. But Schulz says businesses worked together to keep up with meat processing and it may never be clear whether the flooding affected consumer prices.

“It likely won’t be one that we can really isolate here is the impact — and it was a rather large impact,” Schulz says. “I think it’s something that over time we may realize a little bit but overall I don’t think it’s going to be too much of an impact on prices.” He says prices for meat are volatile thanks to ongoing tariffs and animal diseases, so it may never be possible to tease out whether flooding affected consumer prices.

Schulz says prices, especially for pork, are pretty good and demand for meat is high, despite the considerable impact on individual farms.

(Thanks to Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Agriculture, Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News Tagged With: Iowa State University, Pork/Cattle

Featured Stories

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

Summit has easements for 20% of carbon pipeline route through Iowa

Morel mushroom hunters on hold without warmer conditions

Trinity Health aquiring all MercyOne health properties

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

T.J. Otzelberger announces staff changes at Iowa State

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC