Minnesota farmers report lowest net income in 20 years in 2024, things looking up this season

NINA MOINI: Farming is an unpredictable industry, from severe weather to market prices. A lot is out of farmers' control, and we're learning that last year things were not in farmers' favor here in Minnesota. A University of Minnesota annual report that looks at farm finances found that in 2024, Minnesota farmers saw their lowest net income in 20 years.

Some farmers will get some of their money back. Applications opened last week for a disaster assistance fund from the USDA for losses from both 2023 and 2024. But we wanted also to check in on how things are going this year. So joining us is Jordan Goblish, a fifth generation corn and soybean farmer in Vesta, Minnesota, in the southwest part of the state. Thanks so much for being with us today, Jordan.

JORDAN GOBLISH: Thanks so much, Nina, for having me. I appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: I appreciate you and also appreciate Pauline Van Nurden, an extension economist at the Center for Farm Financial Management that's at the U of M. Pauline, thank you as well for being here.

PAULINE VAN NURDEN: Yes. Thank you for having me, too.

NINA MOINI: And I'd love to start with you, Pauline, since you're the author of the report that we're talking about here. I mean, 2024, crop farmers, we read here that the income was about $2,000 compared to about $47,000 the year prior. I mean, these numbers are hard for, I imagine, people outside of that industry to wrap their head around how that could even happen. Could you talk a little bit about what contributed to this huge decline?

PAULINE VAN NURDEN: Yes. 2024 was a challenging year. And in fact, 2023 was actually pretty challenging as well. So like you said, the profits have continued to erode, unfortunately. So last year, 2024, really was mired with a lot of weather situations. Jordan can speak to that, of course, in the southwest part of the state, dealing with wet spring planting and then things turning dry, so yields were down.

Coupled with that were the fact that crop prices had dropped during the year. Input costs stayed high. There's inflation in agriculture inputs as well. Interest rates are going up for producers. And so it just ended up being, unfortunately, the perfect storm of the low prices, weather challenges, and then higher costs.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Thanks for breaking that down. And of course, Jordan, from your perspective, would you share just a little bit about how this was for you financially, but also, I imagine, just physically, emotionally, looking out and thinking, I cannot control this? How was that growing season for you the past couple of years?

JORDAN GOBLISH: Well, being a farmer, it's kind of funny, because we put all our eggs in one basket every year.

NINA MOINI: Sure.

JORDAN GOBLISH: And Mother Nature likes to throw a curve ball, if you will. And so we're pretty resilient out here. But as last year went, it is mentally draining when you're looking at your books and realizing that I'm not going to have enough funds here to maybe even farm next year. But I think, thankfully, I have a decent lender, even though I think his interest rates are too high.

[LAUGHTER]

NINA MOINI: Calling him out.

[LAUGHTER]

JORDAN GOBLISH: It is what it is. They go off of the federal interest rate. But yeah--

NINA MOINI: It's tough.

JORDAN GOBLISH: It's nice to see these supplement disaster relief programs coming through. Will it fix everything? Absolutely not. It's kind of a drop in the ocean. But is it helpful? Yeah. Right now, we kind of take anything we can get, because raising a family here of six-- there's six of us-- it can be draining. Everyone's got groceries to buy, and we know how expensive they are, so having all these things from the USDA and everything, it's a benefit to us out here.

NINA MOINI: And if you wanted to just share, Jordan, about what that looks like when you receive the assistance. Is it pretty immediate? Does that go toward just being able to keep your family going, or does it have to go to specific places? What is that?

JORDAN GOBLISH: So in this instance, I actually just received my SDRP right now. And I just got to go into the office, fill out the form, hand it to them. And then usually, I have ACH, so it's deposited in within a week or two according to this, if I'm reading it correctly.

But most times, it can be a process of time, too, where we sign up for these programs in March, like ARC and PLC. We just don't how the year is going to play out with the markets and the yield. And we're just throwing at-- I don't know. Whatever you call it. But we don't know.

It's a gamble. There you go. That's what I'm looking for. So we don't really what's happening. We're just kind of playing the cards. And hopefully, we get the right cards at that moment. But like I said, it's a nice thing to have these payments or help, if you will, because-- we don't really want help. It's a matter of need. We just need it to keep afloat right now.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So different forms, and then it'll just be deposited into your account, you mentioned there. How is this year going? I mean, if you're reacting to the year before, you're kind of already down in a hole a little bit. How has this year been so far?

JORDAN GOBLISH: Well, luckily, Nina, I have the memory of a goldfish, so I don't really remember last year. That's nice.

[LAUGHTER]

This year, crop wise, everything is looking really well in our area. With that being said, the input costs really haven't changed that much. They're still kind of high. We talked about the high interest rates or higher interest rates. And looking at it at a bigger scale, our export market isn't there, so that's why the markets are drowning. We're going to be at another record high, I think, trade deficit again this year, so that's not going to be helpful at all. But going back to our farm-- sorry. I'm getting sidetracked here.

NINA MOINI: No, it's OK.

JORDAN GOBLISH: Yeah. Everything's good. Everything's good.

NINA MOINI: Good.

JORDDAN GOBLISH: We have the crops' perspective with that. I know there's some friends to the north of me by Willmar area, they got excess rain. They're struggling a little bit. So having a good crop is OK. I would probably need 300 bushel corn an acre at-- I think it's $375 today to maybe break even.

NINA MOINI: Is that doable, you think?

JORDAN GOBLISH: 300 bushel corn? Oh, no.

NINA MOINI: OK.

JORDAN GOBLISH: No. No, our historical averages are around that 200 in my area. So we're 100 bushel short to that, and I think we need about $485 to $515 cash price to break even this year with the amount of inputs. I mean, every farm is different, obviously. That's why I gave you a range.

NINA MOINI: No, that's so helpful. Thank you. Yeah. And Pauline, the thing is that people's financial situations are changing in this industry year to year, and you don't know. There's uncertainty. Why is it so important to track this financial data from farmers?

PAULINE VAN NURDEN: Right. It does give a pulse of the general farm economy, rural Minnesota economy. Just like Jordan said, still need to put food on the table for the family, buy clothes, all of those things, so understanding how farmers are doing really does impact rural Minnesota as well.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So you're just kind of keeping an eye on things year to year, and that could also help to determine how best to help our farmers who are in different situations. Before we let you go, Jordan, you're a fifth generation farmer, which is really beautiful, I think, and very amazing.

From other folks that I've talked to, sometimes, it's harder for newer generations to want to pick up this line of work, because it is difficult. Tell us what you kind of love, what keeps you going about it, and what your hope is for your family farm's future before I let you go.

JORDAN GOBLISH: Oh, absolutely. So I grew up on a farm. That was a huge thing that got me going in farming. And since day one, I always wanted to be a farmer. And I told Deb that from the start.

NINA MOINI: Aww.

JORDAN GOBLISH: But it's kind of one of those things. It's a legacy thing, and you just want to keep building that and then handing it off down, hopefully, without too much taxation.

NINA MOINI: Maybe one of your six kids, do you think? One of the six would want--

JORDAN GOBLISH: No, sorry. Family of six, four kids.

NINA MOINI: Oh, four kids. OK. So maybe one of them would show interest in the future.

JORDAN GOBLISH: Yeah. It's kind of funny. We have a family name, George. There's a lot of George's in the family tree. So my oldest son is George. So the idea is, if he wants to-- it's obviously up to him, but to make it an easy transition for him.

But I don't know. I just love being out here. Every day is different. Today, I went to a plot tour, and now, I'm on the radio. And then after this, I'm going to go out on the road ditch and do some raking and baling for a cattle guy around here. So, yeah, who knows what tomorrow brings?

NINA MOINI: Who knows? But I love your attitude going into it and your gratitude as well, even when things could get tough. Jordan and Pauline, thank you both very much. Have a great summer.

JORDAN GOBLISH: All right. Thank you very much.

PAULINE VAN NURDEN: Yes, thank you very much. Have a great day.

NINA MOINI: Jordan Goblish is a corn and soybean farmer in Vesta, Minnesota, and Pauline Van Nurden is an extension economist at the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota.