China-Agriculture.

CHINA-Any trade agreement arising from Doha Development Round talks is unlikely to

be implemented before 2011, it said. As China rapidly industrializes, its energy use and oil consumption have soared, affecting the global fuel market, Iowa farmer and syndicated radio host Mark Pearson said. The diet of the country’s growing middle class is also becoming more Americanized, including more meat and packaged foods. As a result, the Chinese have imported large amounts of U.S. meat and feed crops..

"Around the world, despite the recession, it’s estimated 100,000 people a day are joining the middle class," Pearson said. "These are people in developing countries who are not simply subsisting for the first time in their lives. That looks pretty good for us in agriculture."

Even so, U.S. exports are expected to drop this year because the strengthening U.S. dollar means the exports aren’t as cheap to foreign buyers as they were before, Phil Farrell of Elburn Coop said. Rising corn production in China, Argentina and Brazil could also lessen the world’s demand for U.S. corn – though that depends on severe droughts occurring in Argentina and Brazil.

"Brazil didn’t used to export anything," he said. "Now they are starting to export. [U.S..] corn exports are pretty dismal compared to a year ago. We’re down 49 percent."

Soybeans are just the opposite, Farrell said. The popularity of soy biodiesel and soy in livestock feed have kept exports high.

With a new administration in the White House, farmers and other agribusiness people are watching to see where agriculture and energy policies will go, Pearson said. As many ethanol plants slow production or shut down, the ethanol industry is predicted to use 300 million to 400 million fewer bushels of corn in 2009, he said.

After a year of losing money on hogs, pork producers have slowed production and trimmed herds, so prices should begin to recover, Pearson said. The future also looks bright for cattlemen: Domestic beef consumption should pick up as the economy recovers and people head back to restaurants, and beef exports are finally recovering after being shattered by a mad cow scare in 2003.

Though farmland prices are expected to plateau in 2009, they should remain high, Pearson said.

"Farm balance sheets, frankly, haven’t looked this good in 30 years," he said. "We’ve got our house in order. ... We’re hearing people say, ’We expanded, bought some new equipment,’ but no one’s gone overboard."