News

Missouri farm income projection is down

The Missouri farm income projection by FAPRI-MU is down for 2019.

Director Pat Westhoff tells Brownfield the estimate is based on 2017 information, “As we look forward, these very preliminary projections look like to us that the future looks like the recent past, unfortunately. That we keep net farm income in Missouri below $2-Billion-dollars a year for the next decade.”

Westhoff says that’s across all Missouri commodities, for the most part, “It is a hit across the board. I think we have at least a little bit more growth in livestock receipts in front of us than we do on the crop side. That, of course, depends on where we are in the cattle cycle. If we have maybe another year of very weak cattle prices maybe some improvement thereafter. That gives a bit of a bump longer term on the cattle side.”

And, he says, farm income tracks with the national farm-to-debt asset ratio which FAPRI expects to keep climbing, as high as 15% over the next 10 years.

Brownfield interviewed Westhoff at the 2019 Abner Womack Missouri Agricultural Outlook Conference.