Prices Paid to Farmers Drop 3.1% in January

Prices that farmers get for raw products dropped 3.1% in January, virtually wiping out gains made in the last three months of 1985, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

The decline put the price index at 8.8% below a year ago, the department’s Crop Reporting Board said in its monthly report.

Department economists say no major recovery is in sight, at least through the first half of 1986.

The report said lower prices for lettuce, cattle, turkeys, oranges and wheat were mostly responsible for the decline from the index’s December level. Higher prices for sweet corn, soybeans and corn helped offset the drop for the other commodities.

Prices paid by farmers, meanwhile, rose 0.6% from their December average but were 0.6% below a year earlier, the report said. Higher prices for feed, feeder livestock and real estate taxes were mainly responsible for the increase from December. Partly offsetting the increases were lower prices for fuel and energy and lower interest rates.