The recent rollercoaster ride on Wall Street is affecting the ag economy.

Just this summer, grain prices soared to all-time highs. Since that spike, prices have dropped drastically, especially in the past several weeks, when markets have found it difficult to stay at an even level.

For ag producers, it is no secret, when Wall Street is successful, so are they.

The recent financial crisis is affecting not only those involved in the stock market and main street, but in Nebraska, it is also affecting those who make a living, growing a good portion of our nation's crops.

Alan Tiemann has been farming for nearly 30 years.

In that time, Tiemann said he has seen markets at their highest and lowest, but he said nothing compares to the recent Wall Street drops and gains.

"The swings as of late are more volatile. When I started farming, we didn't see 50, 60 cent moves in the market during a day. It would take the market a long time to move that amount. Anymore, it's common for it to move up and down 30, 40 cents a day constantly. It's not a surprise," said Tiemann.

Despite the market's highs and lows, Bruce Johnson, UNL Professor of Ag Economics, said 2008 is set to be a "bin-busting" year for Nebraska crop producers.

"The prices are high for corn and beans, and wheat and other crops, compared to a year ago. As you look at today's prices on crop commodities, relative to a year ago and two years ago, they're a lot higher, and with forward contracting and so forth, the market still looks relatively strong, even coming down from that crazy upward spike," said Johnson.

Not everyone agrees. Many are concerned with the recent financial woes the U.S. is facing, and say ag producers are in store for a disaster similar to the 1980s farm-economy collapse.

Johnson said that is not so.

"It's a different kind of set-up, in that we have ag producers who are stronger financially in terms of their debt exposure, and so forth, and they've been for the past 30 years, so we're not to a point of a wash-out that would be anything close to the mid 80s," said Johnson.

While it looks like 2008 is still set to be the most profitable year for Nebraska crops, Tiemann says stability in the market would be even better news.

"Right now, with the speculation that goes on in the grain market, we really don't know reasons behind what's really moving the market a lot of times. It would be nice to have a little stability in the market," said Tiemann.

Although crops are set to have a record-setting year, the livestock sector is expected to experience a $750 million reduction in net earnings compared to 2007.

Although grain prices have recently hit record highs, input costs have continued to double and even triple, which in the end, does not leave that large of a profit margin for farmers.