U.S. farmers and those in agriculture are hoping that help could be on the way amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Farmers who are positioned to do so are really rushing to renegotiate their financing,” Farmers Bureau Network co-founder Charles Baron told St. Louis Public Radio. “And it’s a great moment for farmers to put themselves in a long-term cost position and capture a lot of savings.”
Baron based his projections on a number of factors, among them the growing level of applications to refinance land and large equipment loans. Baron also pointed to historically low interest rates as another avenue where those in the industry might be looking to cash in.
“It can save farmers tens of thousands of dollars every year for many years,” he added.
Still, University of Missouri agricultural professor Pat Westhoff is warning all to proceed with caution as all the early signs he sees indicate the low crop prices and trade uncertainty will certainly end in even more damage to those in the industry.
“The negatives are almost going to certainly outweigh the positives,” he said. “So we’d expect lower farm income at the end of the day than we would have had had the coronavirus attack not occurred and if the China agreement had not been reached.”
With the coronavirus being uncharted waters for most everyone, Westhoff added no one can know for certain how much damage it will ultimately mean for the economy.
“It’s taking us some time to come up with a very preliminary assessment, because every time we think we’ve got things understood, we realize there are a half-dozen other factors we didn’t include that are changing all the time,” he added.
Baron said farmers tend to take a long-term approach.
“Farmers think in the very long term,” he said. “They are in it for the long haul and are getting ready to put seeds in the ground with the idea that they are going to be at it for decades to come. But they need to put themselves in very strong cost positions to survive these downturns in the market.”
