AUDIO: Krista Swanson – NCGA
A pair of agricultural economists say farm incomes continue to falter.
Danny Munch, economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the updated farm income forecast from the USDA is not promising.
“Major revisions in this new 2026 report.” He says, “Last year, we originally had expectations for about $180 billion in net farm income, and ultimately, they made a massive $30 billion revision to $153 billion. And then for this year, they estimate to be down by about another billion.”
Krista Swanson, chief economist with the National Corn Growers Association, tells Brownfield 2026 is a pivotal year.
“Now, this is stacking up to be the 4th consecutive year of losses on average for farmers,” she says.
Munch says the upcoming Farmer Bridge Assistance payments should help, but…
“It doesn’t fill all the gaps.” He says, “You still have a big gap that farmers are facing. And long term, most of our farmers know that it’s going to be increased demand for their products to pull a lot of our supply into new markets that turns things around.”
Brownfield spoke with both at the Illinois Farm Bureau’s Governmental Affairs and Leadership Conference in Springfield.
