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Higher production costs strain ag finances, banking leader says
A banking leader says a squeeze on agricultural profitability is one of his biggest concerns this year.
Ed Elfmann, senior vice president of agricultural and rural banking policy for the American Bankers Association, says row crop farmers face a number of challenges.
“Talking to some of my Southern bankers, they are saying that they have been doing this for three to four years now and that it’s just starting to come into the Upper Midwestern world.”
He tells Brownfield it’s getting more and more expensive to raise crops.
“Those high input prices are just not coming down right now,” he said. “Commodity prices are low, inputs are high, and you just have a margin squeeze in a really tight way.”
Elfmann says he’s calling for more simplified USDA loan programs to help future farming generations.