Last year, Minnesota farms earned the lowest median farm income in the past 23 years. The median net farm income for 2018 was reported at $26,055, down eight percent from the previous year. University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management Associate Director Dale Nordquist says almost all agriculture segments saw poor performance. “It was a low income year for crop, dairy, pork and beef producers,” says Nordquist. “Crop producers were a little higher than the median. If it weren’t for the Market Facilitation Program to ward off problems with trade, it would have been a really tough year.” One a more positive note, farm balance sheets did not deteriorate substantially from previous years. Nordquist accredits part of this positivity to strong land values. “There’s also still quite a bit of working capital on a large share of crop farms. While there’s been tough cash flow, the underlying assets of these farms has been maintained.” View the report here.
