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“Sitting out the season”: Some Minnesota farms halt production amid financial strain

The prospect of negative returns is forcing drastic decisions on a handful of Minnesota farms.

Steve Zenk with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture tells Brownfield a small segment of farmers who primarily own all their land are choosing to rent it out rather than farm it in 2026.

“And it might be folks that are a little older and don’t have huge machinery debt obligations. But yeah, we have seen some operations that decided ‘well I’m just going to sit out this year (because) I can’t make cash flow work with corn and soybeans.”

He says going idle for a year could impact average production history for crop insurance, but farming at a loss might be a greater risk.

“Or if the neighbor is willing to come over and pay you $250, $300, or maybe more than $300 an acre, and that’s guaranteed with no risk.”

Zenk is also seeing some struggles on the livestock side.

“I know feedlots that are sitting empty now because they’re saying ‘I’m just going to wait’ because feeder cattle are too expensive. But there isn’t anybody willing to come in and rent those facilities usually.”

Zenk has been a farm advocate in Minnesota since 1990 and says 2017 was the last time he can recall something like this occurring.