A recent Iowa Farm Bureau report shows the Iowa ag economy has seen a down trend from 2023 into 2024 that lead to farm incomes dropping by nearly 25 percent. IFB’s economics and research manager Christopher Pudenz says there are some things that could turn the farm economy around. He says getting away from Farm Bill extensions to passing a new five-year bill is one.
Pudenz says the safety net it provides takes some of the uncertainty out for farmers.
He says there are some bright spots going forward, including the international export market.
Pudenz says some of those areas could get farm incomes up a again.
Republicans took back the White House and the Senate in the recent election and that can also impact the Ag economy. Pudenz can’t say yet what that impact will be.
Pudenz says these factors are all important as the I-F-B analysis shows the negative impact on the state’s economy from the downturn is more than one- and-a-half-billion-dollars.
