Outlook varies for farm equipment sales during COVID
By Bill Schaefer
For Idaho Farm Bureau Federation
POCATELLO - While the U.S. economy continues to slowly recover from the impacts of COVID-19, a recent report indicates that U.S. agriculture enjoyed record net farm income during 2020.
Net farm income in Idaho and the United States are both estimated to have increased substantially in 2020.
With the increased farm income, said UI Agricultural Economist Garth Taylor, Idaho farmers and ranchers should be sheltering their increased revenue with land or equipment purchases. Where are they going to shelter this? Taylor asked rhetorically. Well, they re going to incur some additional expenses and try to update their equipment line and try to buy land and other expenses.
Ag Labor Solutions Pt 2
Tuesday Jan 19th, 2021 With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Ag groups are ready to take on Congress in the new year with a list of industry needs, topped in one form or another by ag labor reforms.
AmericanHort Senior Vice President Craig Regelbrugge, speaking at the Potato Expo, said they’ll be taking another run at the Farm Workforce Modernization Act …
REGELBRUGGE … “That all said, I mean, I think many of us are disappointed that we were not able to make progress last year after the House passed the landmark bill. I think that we clearly understand, you know, the pandemic began to bear down and the rest quickly became history.”
Ag Labor Solutions Pt 1
Monday Jan 18th, 2021 With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. With a new administration and a shuffling of Congressional numbers to deal with, ag groups are preparing for another face off.
Speaking recently at the Potato Expo, AmericanHort’s Craig Regelbrugge said priorities begin with a continued push for upgrades to our ag labor rules that began back in the 90s …
REGELBRUGGE … “And they did so when the agricultural sector had tried to sort of get its own way on what we thought H-2A should look like. And, the farmworker advocates similarly tried to get their own way on a very different view of agricultural labor, and we both had enough power to stop the other. It’s always easier to kill than it is to achieve in Washington.”
Pandemic Ag Reaction Pt 2
Wednesday Jan 13th, 2021 I’m Bob Larson. For all the negative 2020 brought, it could have been much worse in ag if not for the hard work of the Farm Bill Alliance. At last week’s virtual Potato Expo, members talked about the importance of helping growers survive.
United Fresh Produce CEO, Tom Stenzel says they brought their message and the data to the table …
STENZEL … “It’s been in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), direct payments to growers. It’s been in the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, so there’ve been a lot of different ways that funding has come in. It’s not everything we need, but it was quite a testament to how the industry can work together under a crisis.”
Pandemic Ag Reaction Pt 1
Tuesday Jan 12th, 2021 I’m Bob Larson. With all the challenges brought on by the pandemic in 2020, agriculture pulled together as best they could to weather the storm.
At last week’s virtually held Potato Expo, representatives from different specialty crop groups in the Farm Bill Alliance sat down to discuss those obstacles.
United Fresh Produce CEO, Tom Stenzel says it was different from the start …
STENZEL … “It gave us the natural ability to align the industry again. And, as usual, the COVID crisis affected people differently. Growers in Florida were not able to sell product, they were dumping product. Certainly, the potato industry was affected long-term as well with contracts being canceled.”