Study: Farm Income To Plummet In 2015

By Nicholas Bergin/Lee Enterprises
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Nebraska farm income will drop 45 percent this year, steeper than forecasters previously thought, because of lower than predicted crop prices and reduced government payouts, according to a new economic outlook released Wednesday.

While the decrease in farm income will be steep, it’s neither disastrous nor a return to the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, said University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Policy Specialist Brad Lubben, one of the contributors to the latest three-year outlook by the UNL Bureau of Business Research and the Nebraska Business Forecast Council.

“It’s definitely an adjustment time for ag producers," he said. "It is not a crisis, but it is a time for carefully managing farm operations and finances.”

The Nebraska economy is closely tied to the farm industry, and the income drop will be a drag on the state’s job growth, which economists expect will lag behind the national economic recovery, the study says.

Nebraska is expected to add jobs at a 1.2 percent rate through 2017, compared with 1.7 percent for the nation, the report says.

The lower farm income is to some extent a return to normal after Nebraska’s net farm income reached $8.37 billion in 2013 on record-high crop prices, said Eric Thompson, associate professor of economics and director of the Bureau of Business Research.

In 2013, corn prices topped $8 a bushel. On Tuesday, corn for September delivery closed at $4.23 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

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