Uncertainty Looms in Ag Economic Outlook

At the recent Ag Retailers Association annual meeting CoBank Senior Director for the Knowledge Exchange Division Terry Barr said transition and uncertainty are two key economic aspects agriculture can expect moving forward.

Barr: "We're entering into a fairly dynamic period of uncertain political and economic realities. We're in transition politically and we're in transition economically and we're finishing up this commodity supercycle. So there is a lot of things on everybody's plate trying to plan for the future. I think that the global dynamics of agriculture are coming more and more into play as we go forward. So I think it's a much more difficult period than we've been through, ag has enjoyed a pretty good run here. Now we've got some tough challenges and adjustments to make and I think it is important to stay focus on the broad picture of where we are at."

Barr said although there will be economic challenges ahead, ag producers have recently experienced the commodity supercycle and many have built up their working capital.

Barr: "I think for producers, I think they just have to get their arms around the new realities and plan accordingly. They've had a good run. In most cases they've built some working capital and they've built some capability. They're going to spend more time on the marketing side. Procrastination is not going to be a good strategy in this environment. But I think they have the wherewithal to deal with that. Production agriculture does production agriculture very well. The question is can they adept the marketing side and business side to this new environment until we can get to that next supercycle."