Trends are an important part of agriculture, which is why industry bankers wanted to explore what farmers could face in 2023.
This year has brought many challenges for farmers, whether it was drought, transportation, or legislative hurdles, America’s producers have been through a lot. The former Chair of the Ag Bankers Committee says he expects next year to still have its issues, particularly when it comes to margin squeeze.
“I don’t see many of these oil-based input costs necessarily coming down anytime soon, and I mean whether that be fertilizer, fuel, diesel, whatever that might be transportation cost. And on top of that I think labor as well is going to stay relatively expensive. So, the bottom line is farmers can only control one thing and their business and that’s those expenses that they have control they can’t control the revenue. So, they’ve got to be great managers of expenses but i think margin compression is going to be the story starting in later on in 2023,” said Curt Covington.
Looking ahead to 2024, Covington says he anticipates a lot of problems surrounding the economy to ease, including supply chain issues, backups at ports, and other transportation issues.
