INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Hoosier farmers will soon have daily access to updated market price information from live auctions on lower-volume products such as hay, goats and sheep.

The goal is to stop producers of certain farm products in Indiana from continuing to get cheated for lack of daily pricing data. Gov. Mike Pence signed House Enrolled Act 1170 creating a state-run news service for farm commodity prices to be operated by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

ISDA Director Ted McKinney said the service will start sometime after July 1 with daily updates on what hay, straw, goats, sheep and cattle sold for at major auctions throughout the state. There also could be daily updates, occasionally, on the prices commanded for pork and poultry at live auctions and whatever else is sold at the auctions.

McKinney said two part-time reporters will be hired to gather the information from the northern and southern parts of the state while a third person will be brought in to post the data and operate the system.

The news service stems from leaders in areas like commodities calling attention to buyers from out of state making purchases at auctions in Indiana, then returning home and selling the products for a profit, he explained. He said the out-of-state buyers had access to daily market price updates in their home states and knew how much to bid in Indiana, to turn a profit once they returned home and resold those items.

Nationwide, daily price updates are readily available for high-volume products like corn and soybeans but there are no sources of daily pricing information on the more select farm goods including hay and sheep from Indiana, leaving Hoosier sellers and even buyers a bit vulnerable, he added.

“We didn’t want to see our auctions and the buyers and sellers of these products at a disadvantage,” said McKinney, who added there was enough money lost at the auctions to gain producers support from the state legislature and governor.

Christopher Hurt, a professor in agricultural economics at Purdue University, said there’s need for such a service. For example, he said the USDA does not include cattle on its daily list of commodity prices from Indiana because of the state ranking fairly low in that area of production.

There are other market news sources like the National Agricultural Statistics Service, that give price updates. Those updates are monthly, though, and it’s the daily or at least weekly updates that are more beneficial for producers in settling on a price and deciding when to go to market and where for getting the best returns, said Hurt.

To fill the void, Indiana farmers have been relying on auctions for daily pricing reports but that information may not be the most accurate depending on how the data from each auction house are dispersed, he said.

“We’re not saying they’re misreporting. There’s no standardization,” explained Hurt, who believes pricing on the IDSA news service gathered by an unbiased professional will provide reliability and consistency.

McKinney said the service will be funded from within the ISDA budget, then after two years a decision will be made on whether to continue with the program. He did not have specific cost figures but said the expense will be minimal.

Money to fund the program won’t be available until the new budget year begins July 1. A start date is not known because of factors such as the time involved in getting everything set up to run the service, McKinney explained. The hope is to have it up and running as soon as possible after the first of July.

“We’re very excited at the possibilities,” said McKinney.

He said in no way does the service have anything to do with Pence’s recent proposal for a state-run news agency that calls for a staff of reporters giving information from throughout state government. (Pence dropped the idea after being flooded with criticism that he was attempting to control the news, such as in a communist country.)

“This is just trying to provide some market information based on a completely separate need; no tie whatsoever,’’ said McKinney.