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Economist says ag economy will continue to face pressure

An ag economist says he doesn’t expect the outlook for the farm economy to improve anytime soon.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says profitability in the sector hasn’t been this slim since 2018-2019. “Input costs continue to be fairly high for producers of almost all our commodities, and labor stays high,” he says.  “From a livestock perspective, we can talk about much lower feed costs. But, other costs medicine, you name it, all those costs have stayed high.”

He tells Brownfield farmers are looking at ways to reduce their costs, and that’s impacted other parts of the industry. “On the machinery side, I think we’re still in for a tough period of time,” he says.  “It’ll eventually turn around. But, it’ll take time.”

Brown says farmers’ production efficiency can also be problematic. “Looks like we’re going to have fairly good crops this year, fairly big crops,” he says. “It could continue to pressure crop producers in a way they haven’t seen for a while.”

He says being aggressive in farm management has worked well for some farmers in recent years.  “But now may be the time where buckling down a little bit may be prudent if we continue to see net farm income moving lower,” he says.

Brown says the USDA will update its projected Net Farm Income later this month.