New research: A deep dive into Iowa's ag economy

Christopher, thanks for joining us to talk about a comprehensive economic analysis by Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa State University that takes a look at the ag economic outlook for Iowa.

Tell us what was the purpose of this study and the scope and structure in terms of topics and analysis.

Thanks for having me, Tom.

This study that we performed was inspired by the reality, unfortunately, that we are in a downturn in the ag economy.

It's no secret to folks listening to this podcast that we are several years into a tight margin environment, especially for the row crop producers here in the state.

President Johnson, president of BioPharm Bureau, did a number of listening sessions around the state to try and gauge how folks are feeling out there.

And the takeaways from that and the takeaways from this study as we'll unpack them are that there are some bright spots, but folks still aren't feeling very good about where things are.

And there's some concern about what things might look like going forward.

So we're conducting this joint study that we've rolled out, and the takeaways are multifaceted, and that's because there are multiple aspects to Iowa's economy.

And each of these aspects is sort of crystallized in one of the chapters of this study.

There's a crops and a livestock chapter, a trade chapter, of course, the subject of our econ summit on July 17th.

Then there are some broader chapters that try and capture specific indicators of farm financial health.

There's a farmland markets chapter looking at farm values.

There's a farm financials chapter, an ag lending chapter.

There's a chapter that estimates the statewide impact of Iowa ag on the rest of the economy in the state.

And then finally, The conclusion is a chapter that includes long-term projections for ag production, ag prices, and ag trade both in the U.S. and abroad going forward all the way through 2050.

So each of these chapters adds a bit of a new perspective or a new angle that together paint this comprehensive picture of this downturn that the ag economy here in Iowa is experiencing.