A panel consisting of Chad Hart, professor, Alejandro Plastina, associate professor, and Wendong Zhang, assistant professor, presented a webinar Aug. 25 on farm leasing.
The presentation was reported in an Aug. 26 Successful Farming article, "Iowa's 2021 farm profits to hinge on trade and gov't payments, economists say."
“We are seeing strong production around the globe, but it’s being met with strong demand,” Hart says. “We’ve seen the U.S. dollar weaken and export sales surge. Yes, China is a big buyer, but other global buyers are being seen, too.”
“Entering the 2020 crop season, one in three Iowa farms had weak liquidity. There were 50% to 55% of farms with strong liquidity positions in 2019. So, we are just saying that a growing percentage of Iowa farms are in a precarious liquidity situation,” Plastina says.
“There are signals that the Trump administration sees the U.S., China trade deal as less desirable. However, the news used to be that the trade deal between these two countries was the sticking point in their relationship, while recently it seems to be the calming point,” Zhang says.