Page 4 2025 Logan County Spring Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2025 Continued -- 2025 Spring Farm Outlook With planting season for the 2025 season approaching, most producers are focused on the “bullet points” which affect them the most. These bullet points include weather, price, yields, input costs and uncertainty. Many of these are outside of the control of the producers, but minor decisions made now will affect the outcome in the fall. Concentration on being ready to plant in a timely manner is one item. This includes equipment being made ready, seed supplies in hand, orders for fertilizer and crop production chemicals taken care of, and the tillage and application necessary for the planting season completed in a timely manner. Last year’s weather was quite a roller coaster for temperatures and precipitation. For precipitation, the late winter months were dry, then April was extremely wet. I had over seven inches of rain during April at my house. This led to a later planting season for most, with many acres planted from mid-May on. May and June were more normal, then the July and August periods were very wet with over 11 inches falling over the two-month period. The important thing for this year is the very dry fall we experienced. Less than an inch of rain fell in September and again in October, and harvest was completed with very few delays. The winter months have also been dry, and this has set us up for rather dry conditions as of early March. Looking at the economic situation, some slight improvement has occurred in the corn and soybean budget estimates from Paulson, Schnitkey, Zwilling, and Zulauf. The price outlook has been adjusted slightly upward and corn figures for Central Illinois now show a $61 per acre loss, with a breakeven price of $4.60 including all costs. This estimates yields at 236 and puts land cost at $339 per acre. For soybeans, the estimates are for a $54 per acre loss based partly on a $10.20 price, 75 bushels per acre for yield, and the same $339 land cost. The uncertainty comes in the usual areas of weather, planting, and market prices. The added uncertainty comes largely from a new administration in Washington, and the fact that no new farm bill is in place. Operating under an extension of the prior farm bill has become more common in recent years. Freezing some of the funds affecting agriculture, reductions in force, foreign policy, and domestic policy are creating more uncertainty than usual. Add in the somewhat stubborn inflation, interest rates remaining a bit high, tightening credit,
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