Preliminary U.S. Department of Agriculture reports indicate Kentucky agricultural cash receipts for January 2012 through September totaled $3.6 billion, 10% higher than 2011's record level for the same period. Despite weather impacts on yield and high feed costs, agricultural economists with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture foresee 2012's cash receipts in the state will total $5.3 billion.
Will Snell, Kenny Burdine, Cory Walters and Tim Woods, all from UK's Department of Agricultural Economics, along with Kentucky Farm Business Management Program coordinator Jerry Pierce and JeffStringer from the UK Department of Forestry presented a 2013 Kentucky farm economic outlook and an overview of 2012 as part of the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation conference in Louisville Dec. 6.
Overall, Kentucky farmers in 2012 reaped some good economic returns. But with the end of the tobacco buyout payments in 2014, Kentucky net farm income could be cut by as much as 20%.
Official USDA 2012 cash receipts for Kentucky won't be released until summer 2013, but Snell said the UK economists are seeing high returns in corn, cattle and tobacco and improvement in the equine sector. The typical range for net farm income in Kentucky is between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
"Boosted by significant crop insurance payments, net farm income for 2012 will be toward the high end of that range, but well below the $2.1 billion record high achieved in 2005 following the tobacco buyout," he said.
In the midst of one of the nation's worst droughts, the USDA is projecting U.S. net farm income for 2012 to remain near record levels at $114 billion, just 3% below the previous record set in 2011.
Snell noted that export value remained near record levels in 2012.
"Just as in 2011, high prices were very effective in offsetting lower volume, a slight appreciation of the U.S. dollar and weak global economic growth," he said.