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Is farming still cyclical?

The head of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperative says the current farm economy could be the new normal.

President and CEO of CHS Carl Casale tells Brownfield right now agriculture is experiencing a time of too much supply and not enough demand, but eventually they will balance out.  “Farming will again be profitable, but not to the extraordinary levels that we’d seen over the last few years.  You go back in history and the periods in which we had surplus profits like that sustained over a period of time, it’s just not possible.”

He says it’s important for farmers to understand what’s going on in the marketplace and what factors they can control.  “We can wish and will all we want but we can’t as individuals make corn $7, but what we can do is to look at our operations and say what can I do more efficiently, stuff as simple as ‘Am I doing tillage I don’t need to?’”

Casale says if farmers aren’t getting a better price for their crop, they need to focus on better yields and what it takes to be successful in a more moderate operating environment.

AUDIO: Interview with Carl Casale