USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer says the diverse mix of crops and livestock, along with commodity prices, plays a critical role in shaping farm income. “ Farm income is a mix of a lot of different things and, you know, corn and beans and wheat and cotton and rice, but there’s horticultural products. There’s livestock products, all of those things filter into farm income, but, commodity prices are obviously a key factor in determining a chunk of farm income,” he explained. “And we’ve seen commodity prices come down from their highs of 22, which is also when we saw our peak export value. So goes the price of some of our key agricultural exports, so goes our total export value, and that also is a big contributor to farm income.”
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.