Linda Smith, Top Producer Executive Editor
Last September, a Top Producer survey found that readers’ attitudes toward the general farm economy had slipped from 54% positive last spring to 39% in September. That now has dropped to just 19% positive. Meanwhile 26% are neutral, 47% somewhat negative and 8% extremely negative.
Regarding their own farm’s financial health, positive rantings fell to 49% versus 67% last September:
| 11% | extremely positive |
| 38% | somewhat positive |
| 30% | neutral |
| 18% | somewhat negative |
| 2% | extremely negative |
“I would like to add a tool shed, but prices have skyrocketed. Fertilizer is very high and seed costs have gone up but again it seems crop prices have pretty much leveled out. I think we have seen the last of the good profits again.”
“This last drop in the market has taken a lot of optimism out of the people I’ve talked to. The marketing end of this business gets to be more and more frustrating all the time, or maybe I’m the only one who’s missing it!”
“I am afraid that our government is going to cause most of the food we eat to be produced somewhere else due to overregulation and hostility toward profitable-sized farms.”
You can e-mail Linda Smith at lsmith@farmjournal.com.
