Looking toward the year ahead, Alan Hoskins, president of American Farm Mortgage, says there’s a long road to get inflation under control.
“Just because we hear there will potentially be rate reductions, I don’t think that’s something we need to be carving on a stone tablet,” he said during a recent appearance of AgriTalk. “I think sometimes we believe numbers are numeric only. The numbers create emotions, and that’s ultimately what drives the economy is the emotion of the American consumer.”
And while higher interest rates have mitigated some sales around the ag industry, Hoskins says it’s also created a more business-savvy farmer.
“Folks are being more mindful of the long-term effect of their decisions. The rise in interest rates have allowed producers to do a much better decision-making process before they pull the trigger,” he says. “It’s causing them to make sure that’s really a good long-term acquisition for their operation.”
One of the factors he thinks is being used to determine if something is a good purchase for an operation is its ability to solve the ongoing labor issue.
"[Labor] is something I think has become much more in the mindset of producers over the past five to seven years,” Hoskins says.
As for the state of the ag economy, Hoskins believes ag lending institutions are in a good position moving forward. He credits part of that to who is operating them.
“The people that are financing agriculture today have a very savvy knowledge of the industry. That allows them to make better decisions for the banks,” Hoskins says.
To hear more from Hoskins, listen to this episode of AgriTalk.
