By Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the first Farm News & Views Report for 2026
As we move into 2026, agricultural producers are likely to face some hurdles. For example, more than 20,300 employees left the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the first five months of 2025. thats about a fifth of the staff, according to a report from the agency’s inspector general. About 75% of them left through a financial incentive program offered as part of the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce. The rest left through resignation, retirement, termination or other pathways.
Investigatewest, a nonprofit news organization established in 2009, contends that U.S. farmers are facing one of the widest gaps in a decade between what they pay to produce crops and what they will earn when they sell them. They cite USDA data released in mid December, that shows the 2025 prices paid index, which measures input costs, that had increased to 154.6, while the prices received index had fallen to 120.5. Investigatewest contends that this is the widest spread in the data going back at least a decade. Also, TrrainAg, an arm of Farm Credit Services, is projecting slightly higher operating costs for the 2026 corn and soybean crops, due to the current outlook for increased fertilizer, seed, equipment operation, labor and other input costs.
Arlan Suderman, StoneX chief commodities economist, and Josh Linville, StoneX vice president of fertilizer, both contend that 2026 will be shaped by structural shifts that go far beyond one growing season. Global competitiveness, domestic demand growth, geopolitical risk and policy decisions are converging at the same time, and it’s how those forces resolve, or fail to do so, could determine whether 2026 brings opportunity, volatility or another year of pressure.
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