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Minnesota farm family ponders how to best take advantage of current rally

A farmer in west-central Minnesota is finding it difficult to determine how to best take advantage of profits she hasn’t seen in more than half a decade.

Jamie Beyer grows soybeans, corn, sugarbeets, wheat and alfalfa with her husband near Wheaton.

“We’re struggling with decisions about what equipment we might need (because) when you put off making those decisions for several years, now you have to figure out where your priorities lay.”

The current president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers, Beyer tells Brownfield having a little bit more money to improve your business is a good position to be in.

“Crop-wise, my husband makes those important decisions (so) I don’t have to take the stress of that. But usually he sticks to his plan and it’s not affected too much by the markets today as to what we’re going to plant in the spring.”

Beyer says the current rally is putting farmers in a good mood.  But several years of negative margins that led some to restructure debt or extend operating lines of credit does not get erased by a few months of strong prices.