Prices Paid for Raw Farm Products Fall

Prices farmers got for raw products in November declined slightly from a month earlier but remained nearly 8% above their level of a year earlier, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

The department’s Agricultural Statistics Board said in its preliminary report that lower prices for hogs, corn, grapefruit and soybeans were partly offset by higher prices for tomatoes, potatoes, milk and sweet corn, resulting in an overall drop of nearly 1% for the month.

In part driven by the summer’s drought, prices received by farmers had been rising throughout most of 1988 until September, when the increase leveled off. November’s decline was the first drop in the price index since February.

Despite the decline of the overall price index, some commodities continued higher in November. Wheat, for example, rose an additional 6 cents a bushel to a U.S. farm price average of $3.90 a bushel, the highest since it was $3.95 in May, 1981.

Prices of livestock and livestock products as a group were off just less than 1% from October.