Farm income is going down, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The agency is projecting a nearly 7 percent drop in farm income this year.
THe drop comes after a year when farm income was up in 2017.
The USDA says US farm income should be about 59 and a half billion dollars this year. That sounds like a lot, but if the agency is right, that would make 2018 the lowest farm income year in more than a decade.
John Newton is the director of Market Intelligence at the American Farm Bureau Federation. He says farm income has dropped by more than half since just 2013.
Newton blames the drop on lower prices for crops and livestock ata a time when the expense of being a farmer is not going down.
On the upside, Newton says new beef trade agreements with China could boost farm income in the next few years. Still, Newton says farm families need to come up with sources of income not tied to farming itself.
