2022 Income Forecast
Strong demand allowed farm incomes to withstand large reductions in federal assistance in 2021. What will 2022 be like for ag incomes?
USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer says he was a bit overly cautious when he predicted farm income would drop in 2021. Government payments to farmers were set to be cut back by over 40%. But as it turned out huge consumer demand pushed prices up and as a result net farm income rose by 23% in 2021 from 2020 income levels.
Meyer: “We might ease off of what had been pretty good prices. So expect a little bit of softening on cash receipts.”
Meyer was speaking to USDA’s Gary Crawford. He says farmers will still be paying very high prices for things like fuel, fertilizers, and other inputs. But he says because 2021 was such a good year farmers will likely be able to weather the higher inputs costs in 2022.
