USDA Expecting An Increase In Net Farm Income

USDAs Economic Research Service has revised its 2018 farm income forecast into an estimate based on data of actual activity.

“So we have a pretty big adjustment in the net farm income estimate for 2018,” said USDA Deputy Chief Economist Warren Preston.  “In March of this year we had estimated that net farm income for the United States at $63.1 billion. With today's release we're not estimating 2018 farm income at $84 billion.

Preston added the biggest reduction came in production expenses.

“Primarily there were reductions in feed, net rent, agricultural labor, and the capital deprecation that reduced to those production expenses for 2018. And what that tells us is that farmers were able to reduce their expenses again; as they have been doing for the last several years. And so that we look at a brighter net farm income picture than what was estimated back in March.”

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