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Economic challenges expected for farmers in 2017

There’s more speculation farmers could be in for another challenging economic year in 2017.

CoBank senior director Terry Barr says global uncertainty following a record-breaking U.S. crop is concerning.

“We’ve got the Eurozone dealing with Brexit at this point in time.  We have elections in France and Germany in 2017.  We obviously have some political transitions in the U.S. as well, given the results of the election and the uncertainty that has provided.”

Changes within China’s National Congress are also possible next year.

Barr tells Brownfield a demand picture is forming that paints a very unsettled market for U.S. producers.

“We all know that agriculture is much more export-dependent now than it ever has been, and that really impacts the meat side as well as the domestic grain side.”

He says it’s hard to envision real growth in demand through at least the next calendar year.

“There’s a big plate of uncertainty here that leads you to believe unless Mother Nature intervenes, we’re going to continue to carry these fairly large inventories well into 2018.”

Barr says producers will need to be more aggressive on the marketing side to take advantage of any opportunities for profit.