Latest information shared to help farmers and ag businesses succeed

The 26th annual Mid-South Agriculture Finance Conference was held Aug. 7 in Watkins Auditorium in the Boling University Center at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Begun in 1999, the conference provides up-to-date and pertinent information to help farmers and others succeed in the field of agriculture business.

This year’s conference had a strong turnout and featured the return of Dr. David Kohl, professor emeritus of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech University, who has spoken at each of the previous conferences.

Other guest speakers included Eric Snodgrass, principal atmospheric scientist for Nutrien Ag Solutions; Richard Brock, owner and president of Brock and Associates, an agricultural marketing advisory service; and Dr. Brian Briggerman, professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University and director of the Arthur Cooper Cooperative Center.

U.S. Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), who represents almost all of Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, spoke to the crowd at the opening of the conference.

He recognized state Sen. John Stevens of Tennessee’s District 24 (Benton, Carroll, Gibson, Henry, Houston, Obion, Stewart and Weakley counties) and state Rep. Tandy Darby of Tennessee’s District 76 (Weakley County and part of Carroll and Henry counties), who were in attendance at the conference along with Weakley County Mayor-Elect Dale Hutchinson.

Kustoff spoke about HR 8467, the Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024, and its progress in the House of Representatives.

“In my opinion, as the bill is written today, it’s a win for our ag committee and it’s a win for our farmers in West Tennessee,” he said. “It includes, right now, significant changes to crop insurance, reference prices, specialty crops, trade promotion while also addressing international food aid and foreign farmland ownership.”

Kustoff said the bill passed through the House Agriculture Committee a few months ago by a 33-21 vote.

Kohl spoke about global trends, including:

• $68 trillion of wealth will transfer from 2025 to 2040, with $4 trillion being agriculture-related.
• Half of the world’s population will experience a major political election over the next few years.
• Stages of diffusion of innovation for green energy and artificial intelligence. Kohl said that we are leaving a two-year period of infatuation with these items and entering a three-year period of disillusionment, to be followed in 2027 by a reorientation of these items and their uses.Kohl also made several recommendations for the betterment of agricultural business, including proactive goal-setting, having a profit plan, having a personal spending and investment plan and future proofing of business and life.

Snodgrass spoke about how to follow the weather and showed how the weather in one part of the world can affect agriculture in another. He also shared the website for Nutrien’s weather maps at www.ag-wx.com.

Snodgrass defined the meteorological phenomena known as El Niño and La Niña and their effects on weather in the U.S. as well as the development of storms and how it affects crops.

Brock discussed current agricultural business trends, stating that farm wealth is at an all-time high and that the debt-to-asset ratio is near its lowest point ever.

Brock emphasized a point that Kohl made earlier in the day: that events in China may indicate the near-future of American agriculture. Brock stated that the wealth in China is concentrated in the major cities, while its rural areas are poverty-stricken.

Briggeman stated that economic growth in the United States has remained resilient amid rising interest rates and higher inflation in the recent past.

He added that an inverted yield curve suggests that a recession in the United States is on the horizon and that all interest rates are rising for U.S. agricultural producers, including operating loans, intermediate loans and real estate loans.

The conference is hosted by the Horace and Sara Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking in the College of Business and Global Affairs – with John Clark as the interim chair – with support from the Gilbert Parker Chair of Excellence in Food and Fiber in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences – currently held by Dr. Joey Mehlhorn, professor of agricultural economics. Those chair positions have hosted the Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference since 1999.