News
Have ad hoc payments helped or hurt proteins?
A new analysis examines how U.S. animal production and their products have been affected by economic disruptions since 2017.
Production of all categories has consistently climbed year over year since 2018 and analysts expect that trend to continue into 2022. During the same time, feed costs have risen to the extent they’ve limited producer profits.
Economists say ad hoc government assistance likely offset lower margins from 2019 through early 2021, and further created incentives to increase production while feed costs remained high.
Their conclusion, the net benefits of ad hoc assistance are likely to be less than the dollar value of the assistance, specifically for beef, milk, and pork production, while benefiting feed grain and oilseed producers.
