Despite $33 billion in farm aid making up $88 billion in USDA projected farm income, the highest since 2014, 580 farm bankruptcies in fiscal year 2019 are the most since 2011, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Farm debt is also projected to a record $416 billion and farmers are taking longer to service their debt amid historically low federal interest rates.
Stalled China trade talks, weather variables, and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement being stuck in the House are potential causing farm industry struggles.
"It's very, very concerning," Iowa State agricultural economic Alejandro Plastina told Marketwatch. "It's getting harder and harder for farm operations to cash-flow their business."
Plastina pointed to record spring rain hampering planting and the fall harvest slowed by rain, sub-freezing temperatures, and snow.
Wisconsin is the state hit hardest with farm bankruptcies (48) and is a state that relies heavily on dairy. Canada is a neighbor to the north, and Mexico is the largest buyer of U.S. dairy, according to USA Today.
Since the farm downturn in 2013, the price of milk has roughly stopped increasing, according to USDA data reported in USA Today.
Dairy milk has also declined in consumption – amid a rise of milk alternatives – leaving a surplus that has leveled a price chart that was trending up before the Obama administration and making production less profitable , according to Forbes.
A second round of the Trump administration's farming aid is set to be paid in late November or December as the USMCA sits in the House.
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