Farm Income Expected to Drop in 2018

It's very early to know what will happen with farms and farmers in 2018, but USDA has just put out its early farm income forecast for this year.  USDA Chief Economist Robb Johansson said cash income is expected to drop five percent down to just under $ 92 billion.

"And that farm income is forecast at 59.5 billion its down by about 6.7%."

He added for crops this early forecast has crop cash receipts down for everything except soybeans, and meat animals are up a bit.  The problem is costs of productions are likely to rise for most farmers by one percent, and he adds fuel and fertilizers prices are on the increase,

"Labor cost are expected to increase, we know that interest rates are going up so that is another area where we see increasing cost of production."

Also, analysts expect direct government safety net payments to farmers to decline by over 18.5%.

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