By Lauren Cross
U.S. farmers are facing one of the widest gaps in a decade between what they pay to produce food and what they earn from selling it.
New USDA data released on Dec. 15 show that by October 2025, the prices paid index had climbed to 154.6, while the prices received index had fallen to 120.5. The agency measures the indexes against 2011 levels, which are set to 100, making it easier to see how prices have changed over time.
In practical terms, that means production costs were more than 50% higher than in 2011, while prices farmers received were only about 21% higher.
That gap reached 34.1 index points in October, the widest spread in the data going back at least a decade, according to the data. The prices paid index tracks a wide range of expenses, from fertilizer and fuel to feed and labor. Meanwhile, prices for crops and livestock have slipped from their recent highs.
This hasn’t always been the case. In parts of 2021 and 2022, rising commodity prices helped close the gap. Since then, prices received have dropped faster than costs have come down, reopening the spread. These indexes don’t measure profits directly, but they offer a clear signal of rising financial pressure on farm operations heading into the next season.
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