End of Cheap Money for US Farmers Plows Trouble Into Food Production
CHICAGO—Montana farmer Sarah Degn had big plans to invest the healthy profits she gleaned for her soybeans and wheat this year into upgrading her planter or buying a new storage bin.
But those plans have gone by the wayside. Everything Degn needs to farm is more expensive—and for the first time in her five-year career, so is the interest rate on the short-term debt she and nearly every other U.S. farmer relies upon to grow their crops and raise their livestock.
“We might have made more money this year, but we spent just as much as we made,” said Degn, a fourth-generation farmer in Sidney, Montana. The interest rate on her operating note doubled this year and will be higher in 2023. “We can’t get ahead.”…