May 2008

Farm Bureau, state offer market news updates

Farm Bureau producer members have access to a weekly newsletter that provides analysis of Virginia’s current commodity market trends, as well as risk management recommendations.

Now in its eighth year, Commodity Comments is available online. Members can receive it every week by e-mail by contacting Jonah Bowles, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s agricultural risk management coordinator, at jonah.bowles@vafb.com.

Members also can receive Commodity Comments by mail for $28 a year and can subscribe by contacting Brenda Fleming in the VFBF Commodity/Marketing Department at 804-290-1155 or brenda.fleming@vafb.com.

Farm Bureau also provides online links to free daily U.S. Department of Agriculture price reports.

In addition, the Virginia Market News Service of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services collects and disseminates daily agriculture market prices and analyses.

Market information is available on the VDACS Web site at www.vdacs.virginia.gov/marketnews/index.shtml for cotton, dairy, fruits and vegetables, futures, grain, hay and feed, horticulture, international trade, livestock, peanuts, poultry, and other areas of interest.

Site visitors can sign up to receive official USDA Market News reports and Virginia Market News Service publications via e-mail and fax.

To receive those reports via the Virginia Market News fax-on-demand service, or to hear taped daily reports, call 800-552-5521 or 804-225-2812. The reports provide information on futures, agricultural statistics, grain, poultry, cotton, tobacco, livestock, fruits and vegetables.