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South central kansas |
The Ugly Truth: 2023 and 2024 Will Go Down As the Two Largest Declines in Net Farm Income Ever
USDA forecasts 2024 net farm income to drop 25.1% from 2023. That follows a 16%
decline from 2022 to 2023. If those forecasts hold true, that marks the two largest drops in net farm income in history.
USDA forecasts 2024 net farm income to drop 25.1% from 2023. That follows a 16% decline from 2022 to 2023. If those forecasts hold true, that marks the two largest drops in net farm income in history.
(Lori Hayes )
By TYNE MORGAN July 31, 2024
There's a silent stress growing across rural America. Farmers are focused on growing this year's crop, hoping to outyield the low commodity prices. They're keeping their head down and trudging through the day-to-day grind, but their angst can't be ignored. Many farmers say they have a gut feeling 2024 will go down as the worst financial year they've ever had.
The reality is glaring. USDA’s net farm income forecast for 2024 is a $43 billion drop from 2023 to $116.1 billion. That is a 25.5% decline in just one year. What makes it even more jarring is that follows the 2023 net farm income figure, which saw a 16% drop from 2022. If USDA’s forecast holds true, that will mark the most significant two-year farm income decline in U.S. history.
“The $90-billion drop over a two-year period is certainly the largest dollar value drop, adjusted for inflation, that we've seen in our history,” says Ben Brown, an agricultural economist with the University of Missouri. “It exceeds the previous record set in the mid-1970s. When it comes to percentage changes, we've seen larger percentage changes. But you'd have to go all the way back to the Great Depression era and the early 1930s to find bigger percentage declines."
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Ag Economy Outlook
