Higher energy prices hitting farmers' bottom line
WASHINGTON -- While farmers are benefiting from positive commodity prices, rising production costs remain a concern, according to economists with the American Farm Bureau Federation.
AFBF economist Matt Erickson outlined the impact of high energy prices on farmers in a new white paper "Cost-of-Production Report: the Rising Costs of Inputs." High oil prices will drive up the cost of production of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton in 2011, according to Erickson. Higher fertilizer prices are also impacting net farm income.
"The effects of higher oil prices are reducing profits to the. . .

