By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn says the state farm economy faces many challenges even as it weathers a long, dry summer.
Chinn addressed the 11th annual event of the Community Foundation of Northwest Missouri meeting on the Missouri Western State University campus in St. Joseph Wednesday.
Chinn says inflation is having a big impact on farmers and ranchers.
“When you look at livestock, the price of feed has gone up immensely in this last year; fuel prices, fertilizer prices. And farmers are facing a lot of higher input costs,” Chinn tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview after her speech. “Now, while their commodity prices might be up and it looks like they’re doing well, they’re expenses are also up to match it. So, it’s a challenging time.”
A rise in interest rates will make borrowing more expensive.
“When they go to renew their operating lines of credit, they’re going to have a higher interest rate,” Chinn says. “So that means they’re going to have to produce more to make sure that they are able to meet that need. And so, it’s going to be a challenge, because the one thing farmers can’t control is the weather and the market. They’re price takers. It’s a challenge. They’ll find a way to make it through. They always do, but there’ll be some tough decisions made along the way.”
Disruptions in the nation’s supply chain are having a very real impact on farmers and ranchers.
Chinn says some farmers are still waiting on parts to repair equipment that broke down during harvest last fall. Row crop farmers aren’t the only ones affected.
“I had a farmer the other day tell me that he had a breakdown on his bailer,” Chinn says. “There was one part in the state of Missouri that he could go get and he had to travel six hours to go pick up that part to fix his bailer to be able to continue to make hay. That’s not something that we’ve seen in years past, not on new equipment especially.”
Drought conditions have greatly affected farming operations in Nebraska and Iowa. Northern Missouri has been, for the most part, spared. Not so in other parts of the state. Hot dry weather in southern Missouri is creeping northward, spreading into south-central Missouri.
“We’re very alarmed about that,” Chinn says. “We want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to help support them. But, in the end, we just need a good rain.”
Chinn says the governor has revived a drought task force. Missouri can open state land for grazing and haying. Steps also can be taken to get water to ranches suffering from drought.
