Not Enough Inflation

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
This is one of the hot topics right now- inflation is going wild.  Well, it seems like it is for some things, but not for farmers.  Prices for their products have NOT kept up with the times.  We, in the agricultural world, know that; but I am assuming that most people outside of that field probably don’t.  Prices fluctuate wildly in the ag world.  When I was working my last job, there were times that the price of milk, paid to farmer, was the same price they were getting back in the 80’s.  On average, over a couple years, it may not look quite that bad but imagine if your income for the next 4 months was going to be the same as the average wage for your position in, say, 1985.  Can you imagine?  How do you possibly make that work?  Even if it averaged in the next 2 years what you make now, or a little lower, can you imagine making 2025 wages one month, and then 1975 wages the next?  

I am going to put in a lot of numbers in the next paragraph or two.  If you don’t want to read through all that (numbers aren’t for some people) then let me just say this- the average price that most farmers are getting for their products today, compared to 1975 (just an arbitrary date that I picked), is far less than the price increase for everything else.  These numbers were gotten simply by a Google search, and an AI generated answer.  Retail milk price is around 2.64 times higher in price (in 50 years!).  Prices paid to the farmer for milk, a little less- 2.34 times higher.  Eggs (pre-HPAI) in 2021 were 2.1 times higher.  They are higher now, of course, because of HPAI.  However, the farmer isn’t making more money.  Some flocks have been completely depopulated (the PC term).  Broiler Chickens- 2.4 times higher.  Pork- 3.12 times higher.   Bacon, a little better- 4.4 times higher (but bacon makes everything better, right?).  And beef, as a whole, about 3.96 times more.  You can pick several products here, but I will average it at 3.5 times as much.  Remember, prices fluctuate wildly so you can manipulate the numbers, but you get the point.

Now other prices- tractors are like cars, you can choose from all kinds of “extras”.  Super base models are up by 6.6 times as much.  Cars are 10.24 times as much.  They list the average price at $48,641.  That is probably a good number, but we all know that the nicer ones are $75,000, or more.  Tractors are the same.  They list the average price at around $70,000 (100 hp), but nicer models are twice that.  My home farm demoed a bigger one (200 plus hp) with a list price of over $600,000.  So I could tell you tractors are up by 60x if I wanted to.  The last corn planter we purchased was “a deal” at $100,000.  I couldn’t find a good source on what they cost in 1975, but I would be surprised if it was over $5,000 (based on the relative difference between a planter and a tractor).  That is a 20x jump in price.  And the last two, gas and diesel, up 5.8 and 6.81 respectively. 

Bottom line- it would appear that most things are up 6-20 times as much, at a minimum.  However, milk is still at about 2-2.5 times as high, chicken 2.5x, beef 4x, and pork 3.12 times as much. It is pretty tough to make a living when the things you buy are up by 6-20x, and the things you sell are up by 2.5x as much.  Bradford County used to have a farm around every corner.  That is no more.  This would be one of big reasons why.  Inflation may be bad for the rest of us, but for the farmer, it hasn’t been near enough for the products they sell.  Be happy your food bill is what it is.  It should be much higher. 
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The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.