Farmer income declines, but land prices rise in Plains
The decline in farm income in the central Plains intensified as crop prices remained weak this summer, according to 135 ag bankers who took part in a quarterly survey by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Six out of every 10 of the bankers said farm income during the third quarter was lower than a year earlier; only one in 10 reported an increase.
Farm earnings improve when land and assets taken into account
The financial health of farms is commonly demonstrated through its net income, or a farm household's financial losses or gains over the course of a year. According to those metrics, each year just over half of the U.S.'s 2 million farms report negative income. But a new report from the USDA's Economic Research Service uses a wider scope—including asset appreciation, unpaid labor, and tax benefits from farming—to assess the economic state of the country's farms in 2015.