Farm Forecast Shows Income Dropping

The Agriculture Department's 2018 forecast for farm financials has farm sector incomes dropping, the cost of production rising, along with debt levels, sending net farm income down 6.7%.

However, one positive trend, the USDA expecting the average ratio of farm debt to farm asset value may shrink, by an estimated 1%.

USDA's Chief Economist Rob Johanson said if it does decline, you can thank an expected 2% increase in the value of farm real estate taking farm asset values up by just about 1.5%.

"The number of businesses that are in that very highly-leveraged category still remaining at about ten percent for crop farm business and about seven percent for animal farm businesses."]

And so as commodity prices stay down...

"Those are the farm that are going to be having a more difficult time with low, low commodity prices."

And a harder time coping with rising production costs.