Shutdown Delaying Farm Economy Numbers

One of the staples at the annual USDA Outlook Forum, the farm income forecast for the upcoming year.  But unfortunately those figures were not released at last week's event.  USDA Analyst Carrie Litkowski said you can blame it on the 35-day government shutdown.

"The release that was scheduled, the farm income release, had to be postponed until March 6^th, so we would have time to put together the estimates and forecasts with the latest data that's available."

So, analysts are instead focusing on the general state of the farm economy, and on that score.

"We are seeing farm debts rising, but farm assets far out-weigh the level of debts. In absolute dollar values, the farm debt is at a historic high, but the overall ratio of debt-to-assets is still rather low, or historically low," about 15% or so.

It was up around 23% during the 1980's farm crisis.

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