Ellis: Input Costs Continue To Eat Away At Ag Profits

The news sounds good for American farmers at first glance, but a deeper dive reveals many challenges in farm country. Recent USDA figures show farmers are receiving more for their commodities. Sean Ellis with the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation said the non-farming community may think producers are getting rich off the increase, but he said that couldn’t be further from the truth. He pointed out input costs have increased at a rate never seen before in farm country, and it’s eating away at the bottom line.

“Overall, farm production costs are up, it’s safe to say a minimum of 20%, and I’ve heard as high as 30%, and keep in mind, that’s last year versus the year prior.  This year, farmers are bracing for a similar increase, so you’re talking a minimum 20% increase last year on top of whatever we see this year.  Those are astronomic increases in overall farm production costs.”

Ellis added not only are prices going up, more and more farmers are expressing concerns they won’t be able to get the fertilizers and other in puts they need this season creating a lot of uncertainty.

“When you hear the news about farmers setting records for total gross income, don’t be fooled by that, because their bottom line isn’t necessarily going up because of the increase in production costs.”

Ellis noted some farmers across Idaho have reported fertilizer price increases around 300%.

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