THE CALENDAR year 2019 has been interesting for agricultural markets. We began the year with record supplies for all of Iowa’s major commodities. However, trade disputes have cast a cloud over growth in crop and livestock usage and weather events and foreign disease outbreaks have sparked quick reversals in commodity prices. Since the first of the year, corn prices have fluctuated by $1.10 per bushel, soybeans by $1.55 per bushel, hogs by $28 per hundredweight, and cattle by $16 per hundredweight. And we’re still only halfway through the year.