WASHINGTON (AP) - It can't get much worse for livestock farmers, already hit by drought and low prices.

While farmers tighten their budgets to outlast hard times, consumers are finding bargains at the supermarket, particularly on pork. Those deals on meat, however, probably will not last long, analysts say.

"From a meat standpoint, we're almost surely looking at diminished supplies of beef and pork next year," says Dan Vaught, an analyst with AG Edwards & Sons.

Come next summer, when pork-lovers want to enjoy tender ribs, Vaught says consumers should expect to pay more.

"Farm and wholesale prices are pretty closely linked, but there seems to be a bit of a lag before those impact the retail sector," he said.

Hog prices sank to $20 dollars per hundredweight and lower last month, a stark contrast to the nearly $60 per hundredweight that farmers saw in 1997. The recent drop sent some farmers into a panic. Vaught and some economists suspect the worried farmers sold to meatpackers sows they were thinking about breeding for future herds, and flooded the market.

"We've also had a lot higher production than was previously anticipated in the pork side in particular," Vaught says.

Cattle ranchers have seen better days, too. The drought led cattlemen in drought-stricken areas to sell herds they could not afford to feed because pastures and fields where they grow grain are scorched.

The weather is not the only factor causing problems.

Russia banned chicken products from the United States for several months. Although the dispute was recently resolved, it caused a backup in meat storage. Chicken filled the freezers that would usually be filled with pork and beef products.

Mad cow disease was discovered last spring in Japan, one of the largest markets for U.S. beef. The outbreak of the infectious disease slowed beef trade.

"It's been a trip-hammer succession of economic blows," says Neil Harl, an Iowa State University economist.

Harl believes consumers will not be affected much by these changes in the farm economy. He says the situation is similar to one that occurred in 1998, when hog prices sank to as low as $8 per hundredweight in 1998.

Retail prices did not budge much then, Harl says.

"Packers did well, and the retailers did even better. So that I would anticipate a replay substantially of what transpired in 1998 and 1999," he says.

Regardless of how consumers will do, farmers are feeling every blow.

Dave Roper, a hog farmer in Kimberly, Idaho, is finding ways to save money to feed and sell his pigs. He signed an agreement with a meatpacker to ensure that his hogs will be sold and slaughtered.

Most farmers paid attention when economists warned them that hog prices would be bad this year, says Roper, the president of the National Pork Producers Council.

"The fear of the unknowns are what force more producers out of business," Roper says.

The Agriculture Department is trying to help farmers like Roper. The agency agreed to purchase up to 53 million pounds of pork products, or $30 million in pork, to feed to students participating in school lunch programs.

Roper says that while the purchase helps, he hopes the agency can set up a program to anticipate future problems in the farm economy.

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