Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/7/21

The Agriculture Department projects that farmers and ranchers will bring in $113 billion in total income this year, a 15 percent jump from 2020, writes Pro Ag’s Ryan McCrimmon.

The uptick is driven by much higher than expected revenue from crops and livestock, including major increases in cash receipts for corn, soybeans and pork, according to USDA’s farm income forecast published on Thursday. The department also lowered its measure of 2020 net farm income compared to a previous estimate. (The next update is scheduled for Dec. 1.)

Other side of the ledger: While farmers are earning more money for their products, they’re also spending much more on production costs like fuel, labor and animal feed — 7 percent more than last year, according to USDA’s forecast.

And producers aren’t getting as much government aid, either: Direct farm payments are expected to total $28 billion this year.

That’s still a historically high amount of taxpayer subsidies, but far lower than last year’s record $45.7 billion, which was mostly made up of pandemic relief programs.