After years of declining income on America’s farms and ranches, the agricultural sector might have finally hit the floor. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture expect farmers to bring in more money this year than initially projected. Crop and livestock producers could net $63.4 billion in 2017. That would be an increase of nearly $1 billion from 2016, and would be the first time farmers see a rise in net farm income year-to-year since 2013. Low commodity crop prices have caused the farm income number to slip for years, leaving some analysts to wonder when the income figures would hit bottom. This year’s projection shows at least a stabilization, if not a full rebound. “On the ground, people still don’t feel like this is good news,” says Todd Kuethe, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. Many commodity crop farmers are still staring down low prices and hoping merely to break even during the 2017 growing season. Still, he says these new projections
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