Takach Is Bullish On Young, Beginning Farmers

Thanks to record high input costs and very volatile interest rates, the farm economy can sometimes be difficult to navigate for the most seasoned grower.  But what about for those new to the world of farming?  What does the outlook look like for them?

Jackson Takach, chief economist with Farmer Mac, says there are a variety of hurdles for new farmers to overcome.  And many of those predate the pandemic.

“So certainly the increase in cost of capital is going to be an increasing challenge and then you've got to manage all these rising prices.  But one thing I know about farmers and ranchers even the small beginning ones, they fight for what they want to do and they're going to persevere through some of these challenges.  And I have absolute you know confidence in a lot of these beginning small farmers.”

Takach, at the 2022 American Bankers Association Ag Bankers Conference, stressed while the coming year will be challenging for new producers, he’s confident they will be able to navigate past many of those challenges.

“This is this is a group that knows how to take a challenge, spin it around, track it and really start to manage some of those risks.  And so, while the risks are there, I'm pretty confident in our ability as a sector to see through those challenges, and still make money.  They're going to be producers who make money even in a tighter profitability year, and 2023 should still be pretty good we're still seeing good commodity prices so that's the good news for all those small, beginning farmers out there is like the at least the revenue is going to hold steady," Takach continued.  "So, we've really just got to manage some of those costs and we're going to see through that.”

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