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May 25, 2020
Earlier this month, the USDA issued its first balance sheet estimates for the 2020/2021 marketing year. For corn, production came in at nearly 16 billion bushels due to large acreage (97 million) and an early yield estimate of 178.5. A lot can – and likely will – change between May and the fall, but it’s […]
May 17, 2020
by David Widmar A few weeks ago, we wrote about the demographics of off-farm income. For most producers, off-farm income is an important source of funds for satisfying all their financial obligations – including family living and debt service. This week’s post is part two and looks at off-farm income and farm loan delinquencies during […]
May 7, 2020
by Brent Gloy and David Widmar This week marks six years since Brent wrote the first Ag Economic Insights blog post. As a birthday present to our readers – the Wayback Machine will let you can see what the original site – www.ageconomists.com- looked like. We’re economists, not web designers… and since 2014 we’ve […]
May 4, 2020
Several weeks ago, we wrote about five macroeconomic factors to monitor in 2020. As one reader pointed out, surging unemployment claims could pose challenges for an already fragile farm economy. This week’s post is a look at off-farm income and potential challenges ahead, specifically the underlying demographics. Off-Farm vs. On-Farm Income The USDA has several […]
April 27, 2020
by Brent Gloy It always used to make me laugh when I would buy a tool, open the owner’s manual, and have to wade through pages of warnings about all the really stupid things you could do to hurt yourself with it. After reading the 10 pages of warnings, you finally get to 1 page […]
April 19, 2020
by Brent Gloy The last month has been one of the most difficult times in modern economic history. Economic activity around the world has run into the brick wall of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Few sectors of the economy have been spared. Agriculture is no different. We thought it would be useful to take a […]