Farm income to face unprecedented decline in 2024

Feb 15, 2024

By Farms.com

In an alarming forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, American farmers are set to face the largest downturn in net farm income in history. The expected drop of nearly $40 billion, or 25.5%, is primarily due to an increase in production costs and a decrease in cash receipts from crops and livestock.

Production expenses are on the rise for the sixth consecutive year, reaching a new peak at $455 billion in 2024. The most significant costs for farmers include marketing, storage, transportation, and labor.

Furthermore, cash receipts for crops like corn, soybeans, and hay are expected to see substantial declines, contributing to the overall drop in income. The reduction in direct government payments, now at their lowest since 2014, adds to the financial strain on the farming sector.

Amid these challenges, Purdue University's report highlights the growing concern among farmers about the cost/price squeeze affecting their income. This concern is mirrored in the anticipation of loan needs, with many farmers expecting to borrow more due to rising input costs.

As the agricultural community faces this unprecedented financial challenge, the formulation of the next farm bill becomes crucial. It represents an opportunity to address the pressing needs of farmers and ranchers, ensuring they can continue to contribute effectively to the U.S. food supply.

The coming months will be pivotal in shaping policies that could either alleviate or exacerbate the current agricultural financial crisis.

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.