Ah yes—the beginning of a new year, when optimism and hope spring eternal, and we look forward to gradually longer days and warmer temperatures. Any time now on the temps—minus 13 is just not necessary! But of course, it’s a good time to be out in the woods when the chiggers and ticks are nowhere to be found and the beauty of the timber can be fully embraced.
2017 was another good year for me at Heck Land as a couple of quarter section grassland sales bookended a year with a couple of tillable land sales along with numerous acreages sold with the purpose of building a home. Yet another year of low grain prices has put a damper on the volume of land sales where corn and beans are the primary source of income. Farmers are facing a tough scenario right now as grain prices have declined but the input costs have not seen similar adjustments, and the result is that net farm income is at an unsustainably low level.
It’s not all doom and gloom, click here to read this article and see a short video from CNBC. It’s is a pretty good synopsis of what many farmers are facing and well worth the read.
I hope to be able to get out a monthly blog article this year and will look at a variety of topics ranging from the increase nationally in the number of “organic” acres, a relatively new residential development concept called “agrihoods”, what our trade policies may be doing do the agricultural economy, as well as immigration policy and its impact on Texas and California vegetable growers.
Stay tuned—it will be an interesting year.
