A study of producers across Minnesota’s staple company products — crops, bacon, dairy and beef — show 2023 was a year some would like to forget.
The average Minnesota farmer surveyed reported income of$ 44, 719, a 76 % drop from 2022′s high of nearly$ 180, 000. Margins were also tight, with farmers earning 8 cents of profit for every$ 1 in gross income.
The University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota State both release yearly farm earnings reports. According to an economist who wrote the document, the record-breaking year-over-year decline is attributable to 2022’s record profits.
” 2022′s success was really driven by the great commodity prices for particles and meat, cheese and swine”, Pauline Van Nurden, Extension analyst with the U of M’s Center for Farm Financial Management, said Thursday. ” It’s changed considerably”.
The study comprised a large expanse of more than 2, 000 farmers but focused mainly on production- agriculture players, including several earning over$ 250, 000 in net income.
Despite rising costs for fertilizer and fuel, farm profits rose in 2022, but last year’s bottoming-out commodity prices caused a sharp decline in farmers ‘ incomes. Milk prices dropped 21 %, and pork fell 16 %. The only brilliant place, said the review, was the government’s beef producers, who benefited from record rates.
Northern Minnesota corn producer Nick Peterson said he shares similarities with the lean years a decade ago that even resulted in a rise in profits.
” It’s definitely a belt- tightening time”, Peterson said.
The document foretold that the majority of farm procedures anticipated “negative margins” for the current year.
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