News

Central Illinois farmer optimistic 2025 can be profitable

A central Illinois farmer says he’s optimistic that 2025 can still be a profitable growing season.

John Klemm, who grows corn and soybeans in DeWitt County, says there’s a lot of time left in the marketing year.

“The price of commodities may be down today, but we don’t know what our final year return is going to be when we combine that with our end of the year yields, and our end of the year sales, and things of that nature.”  He says, “So, still got opportunity to make profits under the right decisions and the right management practices.”

He tells Brownfield tighter margins have led to less purchases on his farm this year, but not in terms of crop inputs.

“I hate to cut very much when things are down because you know you could shorten your opportunity.”  He says, “So, I don’t like to withdraw inputs and things of that nature, but instead we’re just more aggressive when the opportunity arises so that we can stay steady in a little bit lower economic time.”

Klemm says he’s utilized recent high profitability years to be aggressive on equipment purchases, as well as planning ahead for a downturn in the economic cycle.

AUDIO: John Klemm – Illinois farmer