The news from the commodity markets just isn’t getting any better. Is there any hope for higher futures prices in the near future?

Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri will discuss that question when he speaks at the next University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Food and Agribusiness Webinar.

Dr. Westhoff has become known as one of the most knowledgeable experts in the U.S. on the commodity prices. His organization, FAPRI, compiles the baseline USDA uses to project prices up to 10 years out. FAPRI also compiles the monthly price forecasts for the new ARC/PLC farm programs.

You can watch Dr. Westhoff’s presentation online at 2 p.m. (central) on Wednesday (Sept. 16) on the University of Arkansas’ Food and Agribusiness Webinar. Register for the webinar, which will be moderated by Dr. Bobby Coats, professor of economics and agribusiness at the University, by clicking on https://uaex.zoom.us/webinar/register/e610ea8306ae54dc7510d14dfea9e911.

"With crop prices well below their peak futures markets suggest we could be in for more of the same," says Dr. Coats. "Dr. Westhoff will present highlights from FAPRI’s recently released five-year commodity market outlook and discuss the stories behind the numbers and some of the factors that could cause a change in the market outlook in the months and years ahead."

A native of Manchester, Iowa, Dr. Westhoff grew up on the family dairy farm. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University.

Dr. Westhoff served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1979-81, and later worked with FAPRI at Iowa State University. From 1992-1996, he served as an economist with the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

He joined FAPRI-MU in 1996 and has worked on a range of projects in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

For more on the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s webinar series, visit http://www.uaex.edu/farm-ranch/economics-marketing/food-agribusiness-webinars/.