Craig Chase can't recall more volatile time in agriculture

Agri News: GARNER, Iowa -- Craig Chase, Iowa State University farm management specialist based in Tripoli, can't recall a more volatile time in agriculture. 'I started with Extension in the late 1970s and rode out the 1980s, and it was a whole lot easier to predict what was going to happen then than it is now,' Chase said at a farmland leasing meeting last week in the Hancock County Extension office in Garner. Land values have more than doubled since 2000. The bioeconomy has brought a rapid increase in corn and soybean prices. It has also changed marketing opportunities. Due to wild fluctuations in prices, most elevators have stopped forward contracting."