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Farm inputs will likely trend higher in 2019

Farmers will likely experience higher inputs costs in 2019, at a time when they are already facing a down farm economy.

Barry Ward is the leader of production business management with OSU Extension.

“It’s going to be a challenge unless we see some improvement in basis perhaps through next year,” he says.

He tells Brownfield fertilizer costs are projected to be a lot higher.

“There will probably be a little bit more judicious use of fertilizer use across the spectrum,” he says.

But he says there IS good news for farmers.

“The one thing that’s been the real positive in the last year or two in most of the Eastern Corn Belt is yields,” he says. “So that’s been the saving grace for many producers that they’ve just been able to find profit by producing.”

Ward spoke to Brownfield at the OSU agriculture and policy outlook in Ohio.

Audio: Barry Ward, Ohio State University Extension