Economists Predict Excellent Farms Agriculture for 2008

Agriculture economists at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, announced their predictions at the most recent annual Farm Bureau meeting that was held in Louisville Kentucky on Thursday.  Their prediction for 2008 is its going to be an excellent year for farms and agriculture.

Even with the dry conditions that most of Kentucky had to deal with this summer, there were many records that were set for the 2007 farm year which include:

Record Cash Receipts

Record high grain prices

Record net farm income

Additional markets that are interested in purchasing the agricultural and farms product made in Kentucky.

The only real concerns that may limit the growth for next years farms is if the weather is uncooperative, or other factors such as a recession.

However, even with all the great predictions, and likely record setting forecast for this year, and the next - some farmers have had a hard time - particularly burley tobacco farmers.  Prices are down considerable, and as such many farmers have barely been at the break even point for their crop.  And many farmers that faced the drought this year, even lost money on their farms.  There are only approximately 5000 tobacco farms left in Kentucky.  This is down considerably from what it was just 4 short years ago, which was approximately 30000 tobacco farms in Kentucky.   Prices from the tobacco companies has been flat - and virtually even for the past several years.

But, now we move on to the most important crop for Kentucky: horses, horses, horses!

Horses have been the #1 cash crop for Kentucky for the past 5 years.  The horse farms bring in approximately 27% of the total net farm income at just over $4 billion for 2007.

With the Kentucky Breeder Incentive Program, you can expect that horses will only continue to become a larger portion of revenue for Kentucky farms in 2008.