It has been a rough couple of years with farmers seeing fewer profits, and economists with USDA say these rough patches come in cycles.
I think we’re approaching this transition from good profit years to really tough margin years and we’re doing it very quickly. We tend to go through these cycles where you get two or three years where commodity prices jump, input prices start to follow them, you get a correction in commodity prices as producers around the world respond. Input prices remain a little more sticky, and that leads to you to narrowing margins, where you know, you think back on the cycle from 2010 to 2013, you had good commodity prices followed by, say, 2014 to 2019, where margins were pretty tough. So you know, I think we’re quickly transitioning from those good profit years to pretty rough margins for many commodities,” said Seth Meyer.
Analysts say this next year could be especially difficult for producers relying on exports. The ag trade deficit is expected to hit a new record this year, leaving many farmers frustrated with a lack of free trade agreements.
