“I would just like to ask what specific economic events may have led to this potential farm crisis.”
Ruby Gittings is the Vice President of the West Central FFA Chapter. While attending the FS Fall Ag Roundtables, FFA leaders were given the opportunity to ask a panel of agriculture industry leaders questions.
“I would say inflation. I would say that’s where things really started to go south in the farm economy is when we had 20 to 25% inflation,” shares David Zimmerman, President and CEO of Big River Resources.
“Over the course of two or three years. The price of seed went up, the price of fertilizer went up, the cost of ground went up,” says Zimmerman. “In the commodity world, farmers are very good at producing those costs; those variable costs don’t like to come down as quickly as commodity prices.”
Rob Elliot with Elliot Brothers Seed adds that farmers’ ability to produce has outpaced the demand for the product.
“How do we find new demand sources to close that gap, and that margin squeeze maybe won’t be quite so tight, but today we have to get out of our demand. Corn Growers, I will tell you that strategically, when we invest money on behalf of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, on behalf of corn growers across the state of Illinois, we always ask the question, Will this have a positive impact, to affect the grind and use up the pile?”
