Economic losses are expected to worsen for farmers next year in the face of high production costs, low commodity prices and tight margins, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s most recent markets report predicts.
The report anticipates 2027 will be the sixth year of negative returns for major row crops. It says that farmers growing nine principal crops will lose $32 billion next year — $1 billion more than this year's losses — if there is no federal assistance. Every crop analyzed in the report is expected to remain below breakeven levels in 2027, on a per-acre basis.
Specialty crop growers’ outlooks have not improved, either. Some prices for specialty crops have strengthened, but the report says stronger prices were often paired with tighter supplies as labor, fertilizer, energy and other costs stayed high.
The report requests more federal economic assistance and long-term policy solutions to aid the farm economy. Since July 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law, the report says that fuel, fertilizer and other inputs have continued to rise while commodity prices have remained flat. President Donald Trump sent a request for supplemental funding to Congress last month, including $11 billion in agriculture funding. The House GOP's reconciliation 3.0 bill would give permission to increase the deficit for $12 billion in agricultural aid.
Longer-term policy solutions are needed in addition to federal economic assistance, the report says. Year-round E15, which has passed the House, could “improve demand, provide certainty and reduce the risk of further farm closures,” the report said. It also calls for further long-term policy goals like a five-year farm bill, agriculture labor reform and increased risk management tools. A five-year farm bill has already passed the House, and an agriculture labor reform bill was introduced recently in the House.
