Recently, the USDA is projecting that net farm income, which is defined by the agency as "a broad measure of profits” will decline by $41.7 billion in 2023, a sharp drop of almost 23% from 2022. Profits have risen each of the past five years, and in 2022, profits hit a record of $183 billion. To add to the bad news, USDA is also forecasting that farm cash receipts will fall 4.3% overall to $513.6 billion while expenses will have 6.9%, amounting to $458 billion, and farm government payments are also forecast to decline by 19% to $2.9 billion. The largest decrease in net farm income is tied to a projected fall in cash receipts from livestock due to lower prices for all major categories except cattle and turkeys. The USDA also reported that while American farms posted record revenue in 2021 and 2022, due to agriculture consolidation, 7.5% of the nation’s farms accounted for 89% of American farm revenue. That left nearly 2 million farmers earning only 11% of the nation’s total farm income. With these statistics in mind, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA is awarding $266 million in loans and grants to agriculture producers and rural small businesses through the rural Energy for America Program, to support 1,334 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in 47 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Vilsack contends that these investments will help producers and businesses lower their energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resilience of their operations.
Last week I mentioned that water levels were dropping in the Mississippi River, raising concerns that those levels would soon slow grain shipments to ports in the lower Mississippi and along the Gulf of Mexico. It didn’t take long for the concerns to become a reality, because late last week it was reported that barge spot rates were up 49% from the prior week, and that was 42% higher than last year’s rates for the same time period. These increased rates amount to $23.34 per ton.
I recently found the report, “Practical considerations for adaptive strategies by US grazing land managers with a changing climate,” published in the journal Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. Often articles published in scientific journals can be a tough read for the average livestock producer because of the terminology and often overly complex delivery of simple concepts. While one might not want to start reading this report after a hard day on the ranch, the authors delivered information in layman’s terms concerning how to adapt to a changing climate that may affect producers who utilize pasture and rangeland plants for much of their livestock’s daily rations. The report pointed out that in the U.S. there are 584 million acres of privately owned grazing lands, 155 million acres of grazing land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, 193 million acres managed for grazing by the U.S. Forest Service, and almost 56 million acres of land held in trust for Native Americans much of which supports grazing for cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminant animals. The report can be downloaded at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/agg2.20356?af=R
American economist, author, and social commentator Thomas Sowell wrote: “When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”
