The president of Minnesota Farm Bureau says he has concerns about Minnesota farms facing another year of high costs.
MFB President and Wright County farmer, Dan Glessing says on one hand, commodity prices are stronger than a year ago…
“But those input costs are just crushing us at this point, and that takes care of any margin we would like to see or would’ve seen.”
(Dan Glessing – image: MN Farm Bureau)
Glessing says credit conditions are worsening on many operations as equity runs out. He says the farm industry has seen similar working capital pressures before…
“Young farmers and ranchers are very concerned with that renewal coming up. That would be a concern is we’re going to swipe out those young farmers, when you look at the 80’s farm crisis we lost a generation of farmers through that. And if we don’t get this ship corrected soon, I think that might happen again.”
Glessing says however, he is hopeful because of a more effective safety net and more access to capital today, compared to the 1980’s.
(content: in part, courtesy MNN)
