Reporter’s note: In late August wheat prices in Blaine County had decreased to a point where loan deficiency payments under the 2014 Farm Bill would be available to producers selling their wheat. That was a sign that farm commodity prices were in trouble for this harvest season. Beef prices were also in a decline after several years of healthy markets.

Living in town, I wondered if this decline in prices for wheat and beef had any effect on those of us with no direct connection to agriculture. What I found, talking to several locals connected to agriculture, was that what happens in agricultur...