Tag Archives: ag forecast

Labor Shortages, Input Costs Concern Producers

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Tifton, GA |

Down in Tifton recently, the University of Georgia held their yearly Ag Forecast – an event that’s meant to give insight into the ag economy for the coming year. This year, attendees got to hear first-hand insight as an industry panel discussed the challenges they’ve seen. One of the panelists was Will Bentley, President of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, who says farmers and producers are getting hit from all sides, but labor and input prices are by far their biggest concern.

“I think our farmers are facing some of the issues that they faced over the last several years, labor being a key component to the challenges in agriculture, whether that’s H-2A labor, whether that’s just normal farm labor, equipment operators, or even on the business sector. We’re seeing kind of a labor shortage in every sector of our industry. For our farmers unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a tight year for commodity prices, but also going to see, if not increased at least still high input costs. So, any time you have a lower commodity price, but input costs are still high, it’s going to be a tough year,” says Will Bentley, President of the Georgia Agribusiness Council.

One person that knows that all too well is Karla Thompson, Vice President of JET Farms Georgia, who says that finding good, reliable labor is by far their biggest challenge.

“Our number one challenge right now in our operation, and that’s across every aspect, is finding good help. So, we are in a small town in a rural area. There’s not a huge labor pool to begin with. And the types of jobs that we need help with are skilled jobs. So, finding people to fill those spots and people that have the flexibility to help with the harvest side, that can be really challenging,” says Thompson.

According to Thompson, the reason why labor is such a problem for them is due to how labor issues end up affecting their entire operation, so much so that they’ve had to let produce go to waste because they couldn’t get it out of the field.

“It really does affect all facets of our operation be it from harvest to planting to even finding people to help work in the office. So, on the harvest side, where it really gets to be a problem is if we don’t have enough labor to harvest the, the product from the field, that’s especially a big deal when you come, when you look at sweet corn, green beans, blueberries, they don’t store. They have to be harvested at the right time or, or they’re no good,” says Thompson.

According to Bentley, to make matters worse, he says that policies and mandates have put even more burden and stress on farmers.

“We’re looking at mandates being passed down from the federal government dealing with adverse wage prices and increases for our fruit vegetable growers that utilize the H-2A program. We’re seeing more mandates on some of the crop protection products that we use that are very productive for our farmers. We’re seeing a tighter fertilizer supply and different things like that, that are a little bit more policy driven. So, when the economics are tight, we want to make sure that our government is not piling on and hurting our farmers even further,” says Bentley.

By: John Holcomb

2023 Ag Forecast Provides Updates for the Industry

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Tifton, GA

Recently in Tifton, the University of Georgia held their annual Ag Forecast – a time where farmers, producers, and industry professionals discuss the fiscal outlook for the different sectors of the ag industry. This year, one speaker was William Chambers, Deputy Chairman of the World Agricultural Outlook Board, who says that things are looking up for the agricultural economy in 2023 as the Federal Reserve’s aggressive measures seems to have gotten inflation under control.

“In 2022 it was just highly volatile; with inflation and the federal reserve combating that inflation,” says Chambers. “Now the situation is different now, exactly where this lands, remains to be seen, people are definitely less pessimistic than they were even earlier in say the Fall. Inflation is still high, but it seems to be coming under control.”

However, Chambers says the outlook for some commodities, like cotton are a different story, as he says the price is down due to a decrease in global demand and even projects less acres being planted this Spring.

“We’re looking at a reduction in planted area for cotton, now we had some preliminary estimates back in the late Fall that had it down and we’re not the only ones that look at this; the different traders and commodity groups are looking at it. In fact, even here the UGA estimates are down year on year and that’s why. The prices are down. Global demand is down,” says Chambers.

Thankfully, there’s a different story for the state’s poultry industry, as Dennis Brothers, an Associate Extension Professor at Auburn University says that demand for poultry continues to increase both domestically and worldwide.

“The demand for poultry is high. Some of that’s based on the competitive meat prices, but looking forward, the poultry industry is going to continue to be a slow increaser in size and that proves good for the average consumer, because I think that will help keep poultry prices at a good place to buy chicken and it’s also good for the grower and the companies,” says Brothers.

However, according to Brothers, the poultry industry isn’t without challenges, as he says the biggest threat facing the poultry sector is the current outbreak of avian influenza, which has now affected almost sixty million commercial birds across the country.

“Probably the highest level of concern, probably goes around with high pathogenic avian influenza. It didn’t go away this year, it stayed around, it looks like it’s going to be around, it may be an endemic problem going forward. That’s a big concern for the poultry industry, both at the integrator level and at the grower level,” says Brothers.

According to Brothers, another concern for the industry is what it costs producers to expand their operations or for new producers to even get started in the industry.

“If a grower wants to build new housing or wants to get into the business, the cost of housing is extremely high levels right now, don’t know when that will come back down,” says Brothers. “Cost of lumber, cost of metal, even cost of land. Potential growers are having to compete with residential housing to buy land if they’re going to buy land to build houses, so it makes it very difficult for your average family farmer to get into the poultry business; a lot more difficult than it was, say ten years ago.”

By: John Holcomb