Farm Income Expected To Drop Year Over Year

The USDA released its 2018 Farm Income Forecast Monday, and net cash income and net farm income are both expected to drop from 2017 figures.  USDA Chief Economist Rob Johannson said that decrease will be slightly less than what the USDA had projected back in August.

The reason?  A boost in direct government payments to farmers.

"Earlier, we had government payments were forecasted to fall by two billion in 2018, but know we have government payments forecast to rise by $2.1 billion in 2018."

Mostly due to extra disaster payments and that market facilitation payment to compensate producers for loses due to the trade dispute with China.  But, all of that is not enough to compensate farmers for rising production costs.

"Production expenses are up by about $14.8 billion, compared to last year."

That takes net farm income down this year by 12%.  Farm debt compared to asset values will be up for the sixth year in a row, up by less than one-half of one-percent, but the increase does indicate growing financial pressures.

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