The US Department of Agriculture released a report on their 2022 Farm Ag Census in February.

Iowa State University Extension Farm Management Specialist Alexis Stevens says that the big takeaway from the report is that there was a significant increase in farm income across the nation, to the point that the average farm is bringing in $80,000 in income, with 43 percent of farms having positive net cash income, meaning that they made money. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio why that happened.

“That is really due to really good marketing. We had really strong marketing years the end of 2021, 22, 23 even. We had high value crop, especially commodity crop. We saw those corn and soybean prices in the seven to eight dollar range for corn, and then close to $15 for soybeans. And so that was one of the big reasons why we saw more money in agricultural products.”

Stevens mentions that this is a big feat, especially since the report also showed that as a nation, the United State had less farms, comprised of less acres than in the 2017 Farm Census, but that farmers still had the increased income despite that. She also adds that the use of conservation practices also increased from 2017 to 2022.