BrownfieldAgNews reports:
An ag economist says production cost increases could be contributing to tighter margins for farmers.
Michael Langemeier with Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture says the 2.5% drop in inflation over the past year hasn’t helped farmers with increasing input prices.
“There does tend to be more volatility in input prices than there is in general inflation. Part of that’s input prices, part of it’s the cycles that we see in the products that they produce, but it certainly contributes to that variability in net farm income,” he says.
He tells Brownfield livestock producers are being hit especially hard.
“The two of the big factors that are that are really impacting prices paid now are feed,” he says. “Feed is expected to be down, then the purchase of livestock is expected to be up. Those are very important contributors to the aggregate input price index for the US.”
Langemeier says overall production costs will likely continue to be a challenge for farmers in 2026.
