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Compeer CEO sees optimism climb on higher prices

The CEO of a farm credit cooperative says conversations with farmer-members are a lot more positive now than they were six months ago.

Rod Hebrink with Compeer Financial tells Brownfield there has been unprecedented volatility since the beginning of the pandemic.

“As we started the lockdowns from COVID and transportation demand fell off and impacted ethanol and demand for corn and livestock, production was under pressure, there were big drops in all commodity prices and the outlook was pretty pessimistic. But things began to change in the last quarter of the year.”

He says price levels moved up, giving farmers opportunities to lock in profits at the same time Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments were rolling out.

“And all in all, it turned out to be a relatively good year as farm income is up $119 billion, probably the highest in the last five or six years. So we’re going into 2021 really with a sense of optimism in agriculture.”

Compeer works with crop, livestock and dairy producers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois.