farm income
Like U.S., British farmers pummeled by lower crop prices
Farm income in Britain fell by 29 percent during 2015, according to a government estimate, to the smallest amount in eight years, reported Bloomberg.
Low commodity prices mean farm income stress
Based on average yields and costs, Corn Belt farmers would barely make money at the corn and soybean futures prices now offered for this year's crops, says economist Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.
Farm loan volume near record highs due to ‘suppressed’ income
"Persistently weak profit margins in the farm sector continued to intensify the challenge of maintaining adequate cash flow" in the first three months of this year, says the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.
The farmhand of the future is a robot in Japan
In conjunction with the meeting of G-7 farm ministers, Japan's agriculture minister Hiroshi Moriyama discussed his idea "of replacing retiring growers with Japanese-developed autonomous tractors and backpack-carried robots," said Bloomberg.
Turkey imposes anti-dumping duties on U.S. cotton
The National Cotton Council said it will try to reverse Turkey's decision to assess anti-dumping duties on U.S. cotton, including steps such as a WTO complaint and a lawsuit.
Top question for 2018 farm bill: Is the safety net working?
Congress is two years away from drafting the new farm bill but Roger Johnson already can name the leading question for farm policy. "The big issue in the next farm bill will be, is the safety net really working for farmers?" Johnson, the president of the National Farmers Union, told Ag Insider. "We have a lot of folks who are beginning to struggle financially."
Abandoning wheat, farmers head for monster corn crop
U.S. farmers say they will plant the third-largest amount of land to corn since World War II -- 93.6 million acres -- the first step toward a record-setting fall harvest, assuming normal weather and yields.
Agricultural economy weakening, seen soft throughout 2016
A string of years featuring low crop prices and persistently elevated input costs has led to weakness in the farm sector, with the recent downturn in livestock as an additional factor, says the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.
After two years of steep declines, farm income stabilizes
U.S. farm income plummeted by a combined 31 percent in 2014 and 2015. It will fall again this year, says a USDA forecast, but by a modest 2-3 percent. Large crop-subsidy payments, estimated at $9.5 billion, will buffer a 4-percent drop in livestock receipts and a 1-percent decline in crop receipts.
AFBF chief says low prices mean trying times on the farm
With farm income down sharply since 2013, "farmers are going through a trying time," said Zippy Duvall, the newly elected president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest U.S. farm group. "It is a very difficult time with commodity prices as low as they are."
Big gap between farm costs and likely crop revenue
Corn and soybean growers in the Midwest face nearly $480 an acre in fixed costs and land rent going into the planting season, and hundreds of dollars more in per-acre expenses for the so-called variable costs of producing a crop, says economist Brent Gloy.
The new normal for farmers — tighter credit
With U.S. agriculture in the third year of a commodity-price slump, bankers are toughening their rules for lending money to growers, says Reuters, which quoted a Farm Credit Systems official as calling for belt-tightening by farmers.
Forecast: First annual decline in beef prices since 2009
Americans faced relentlessly higher beef prices at the grocery store in 2014 and 2015 due to drought, tight supplies and high demand. Shoppers will get a break this year, with retail prices forecast to dip 1 percent, says the monthly Food Price Outlook.
Slump in commodity prices pulls down Farm Belt land values
Farm bankers across the Midwest and Plains say that the persistent slump in crop and livestock prices pulled down farmland prices, with further declines expected through spring.
High demand by farmers for short-term operating loans
With farm income down in 2015, persistently high need by farmers and ranchers for short-term loans "amplified concerns about farm sector liquidity moving into 2016, especially if farmers' profit margins remain low," said the Ag Finance Databook published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. The book, produced quarterly and looking at agriculture nationwide, said, "Loans used to finance current operating expenses remained at record levels, while most other types of non-real estate loans declined slightly."
A big hill to climb for farm income
Weak crop and livestock prices combined to pull down U.S. net cash farm income -- a measure of farmers' ability to pay bills and make payments on debt -- 28 percent in 2015, the second year of falling income.
‘Further tightening in the agricultural economy’ – Fed
U.S. inventories of corn, soybeans and wheat more than doubled on average since 2013 while consumption has stagnated, says the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "The outlook for the agricultural economy has continued to become more pessimistic."
Winter wheat sowing down 7 percent amid world glut
U.S. farmers planted the smallest amount of land to winter wheat since 2010, the government said, based on an annual survey of growers. Sowings of 36.6 million acres were down 7 percent from the previous crop and this is the third year in a row of smaller plantings.
House defeats Trump-backed government funding bill
One day after President-elect Donald Trump shot down a stopgap government funding bill, the House defeated a Trump-backed bill written by Republicans to keep the government running until March 14. The GOP bill included $31 billion to buffer the impact in rural America of natural disasters and lower farm income.