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Farm financial outlook very uncertain

Many ag economists believe the farm economy to be shrouded in uncertainty.

One of them is Pauline Van Nurden with the University of Minnesota.

“We certainly have good crop prices, (but) the question is ‘how much have farms prepaid? And what inputs do they have locked in?’ Feed prices aren’t going to go down for our livestock producers. So I think there’s a lot of uncertainty.”

She tells Brownfield marketing will be key to profitability this year.

“We see corn and soybean prices above our average sale price for last year. We see pretty strong hog, beef and milk prices as well.”

Van Nurden says a major factor for the ag economy right now is the ongoing war in Ukraine.