Agricultural producers faced economic challenges, as they relate to an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, rocky trade relations, and more. However, one thing remained certain: “Farmers are resourceful and resilient.”
We take a look at how producers faired this past year, as well as what can be learned from this rollercoaster year.
Tim Koch, Chief Credit Officer at Farm Credit Services of America, reflects on years past. Koch recognizes a series of challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. He also recognizes the producers, who have become “accustomed to the ups and downs of various commodity cycles.”
“As I look across our customer base, they’ve been resilient,” Koch says. “As we look back on 2020, we think overall profitability is going to be strong. Individual situations will vary, but with corn and soybeans where they’re at and recent improvement in pork and beef prices, we think producers are going to come through this in good shape.”
Koch says producers’ success “reinforces the need for a defined marketing strategy, which offers you options to adjust to the circumstances.”
“If we think about the volatility we’ve seen, there was certainly opportunities, even before the most recent run up in prices, to hedge. And we saw some do that,” Koch says. “The other thing a defined marketing strategy does is takes the emotion out of it. Knowing that you have a defined price that you’re going to receive for your product certainly helps navigate the uncertainty and wild levels of volatility we have seen 2020.”
