Biden lauded a thriving”and flourishing agriculture industry during his remarks at the White House Friday, but Kansas wheat farmers Vance and Louise Ehmke are telling a much different story.
“We’ve just been through a super cycle. We’re at the end of it We had virtually windfall profits and now the party is nearly over, and we’re getting ready to go into survival mode,” Vance told Fox News’ Todd Piro early Monday.
“That means that, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it, pay down debt [and] don’t buy anything like land because it’s at the peak of the market,” he added.
Vance told Piro that working in the agriculture industry, particularly focusing on wheat has been “quite a ride” due to the volatile market.
“Going into this… we had $4 to $5 wheat and then they quadrupled. They went up to $13 a bushel and then, for a number of reasons, now they’ve collapsed back down to the cost of production,” he said, adding that bankers and accountants share the farmers’ gloomy outlook for the industry.
“Everybody’s very concerned about where we are right now,” he stressed.
Aside from concerns over wheat itself, the Ehmkes said their livelihood faces a rough road ahead with high costs of diesel and fertilizer and supply chain issues signaling a feast of problems.
“Gas has gone down, and we are thankful of that, but the main fuel we use on the farm in terms of equipment, though, is diesel,” Louise said.
“While it’s gone down a little, it’s not gone down nearly as much as gas has,” she added
Despite the body of problems in store for the Ehmkes, they remained optimistic, saying they know what is on the other side of the hurdles since they have experienced them before.
“That’s one of the nice things about being a little older: We’ve been around the block a time or two, and we know what’s on the other side of this thing,” Vance said, adding that it will be difficult to “turn a profit” in light of massive production costs and sky-scraping interest rates, but said consumers could benefit as wheat prices plummet again.
“While Louise and I, as farm producers, start suffering because of lower wheat prices… ultimately, the consumer is going to benefit from that. As far as farmers, these are going to be very tentative years that we’re going into,” he added.
In recent weeks, other farmers offered gloomy messages about the imminent future of agriculture, including Tennessee dairy farmer Stephanie Nash, who warned FOX Business’ Ashley Webster last month that prioritizing foreign producers over those in the U.S. could lead to food shortages and even higher prices in 2023.
Source : Fox Business