Source: Chuck Abbott, SUCCESSFUL FARMING, 6/30/20


The agricultural sector will struggle over the next year because of the coronavirus pandemic, leading some farmers to quit or be forced out of business, said economist Allen Featherstone in a think tank paper released on Monday. Low commodity prices are forecast to reduce crop and livestock income by at least $20 billion from 2019 levels, and USDA’s coronavirus relief funds are not expected to offset the losses or compensate all producers fully. “The profitability of production agriculture will be stressed in 2020 because of COVID-19,” but based on conditions as of June 1, the sector has the financial strength to weather the virus, wrote Featherstone in a paper compiled by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.

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