As farmers look in the rearview mirror at the season just completed, they have concerns about the planting season up ahead. Zack Webb is a technical agronomist with Deltapine in North and South Carolina, and at farmers meetings he’s attended, he’s hearing a lot.
“The biggest thing is, what are we going to plant to try to not only make money, but just to stay in business for another year? Because commodity prices are pretty tough right now, the acre shifts are jumping all over the place. I mean, we’re seeing cotton down a little bit, and beans and corn maybe up a little bit. But honestly, most of the guys are saying, ‘You know what, I’m just going to plant what I normally plant, to some degree and do what I know how to do.’”
Webb says farmers are telling him they’re willing to give the new Trump administration time to make necessary changes, and they’ll hold on…if they can.
“I was with some growers yesterday. We were talking about the reductions, I mean, 280 million or billion or so, anyhow, to the farm bill stuff, and they were concerned about it. And I said, ‘Wait a minute. Now, read the whole article,’ I said, because a lot of that’s going to be directed toward food stamps and things like that. I mean, honestly, I think most of these guys realize that this first year is going to be tough, whether it’s tariffs or whatever, or reduction in spending and things like that. But I think they also realize that it’s going to take us a year or two to get to where we need to be and to fix some problems that we’ve had.”
And farmers are telling Webb they expect a hard road in 2025.
“I think the reality of it is, I think most of those guys are at the point where, you know, it’s kind of like you got to have a stick in your hand, because you can’t be the open door to everybody at some point in time. You got to draw the line in the sand and say, enough is enough. And I think they realize that’s what’s going to have to happen for things, things got to get worse before they get better. It’s kind of what I’m hearing.”
The old saying is that it’s darkest just before dawn, and farmers hope that’s a glimmer of morning they see on the horizon.