Farmers National Company president Paul Schadegg sees the recently announced $12 billion in bridge payments to farmers having a variety of effects on the ag economy.
“They think it’ll be a shot of adrenaline to the ag economy,” he says on “AgriTalk.” “There are some people who say they’ll use it to pay down debt or use for operating cash. Some need a new combine or tractor, and it might go toward that. And subsequently, it could add to the cash a buyer has in their pocket that they can deploy toward a land purchase, so it’s going to cover a broad spectrum.”
The bridge payment announcement coincides with the busiest time of year with higher volumes of land sales.
“It’s really active this time of year. We see a lot of land sales between October and March. We’re in the thick of it now,” Schadegg says. “The pipeline is full as we get into January and February for land sales.”
Steve Breuere from Peoples Company tells Paul Neiffer on the “Top Producer Podcast” about 40% of their land sales volume happens in the fourth quarter of the year.
Before the bridge payment announcement, Farmers National released their 2026 Farm Input Outlook. According to that report, input costs are projected to increase slightly compared to last year. Fertilizer prices are the biggest driver, most notably nitrogen. There will be modest increases in chemicals, financing costs, equipment and labor. Categories showing flat to small increases include seed, fuel and land.
Specific to cash rent, Schadegg calls out farmland in Colorado, western Nebraska and southwestern Kansas for illustrating elevated pressure on those rates because of increased input costs. However, more central areas of the country Iowa, the Dakotas and Minnesota aren’t as pressured.
