Ag News
GFB holds 2026 spring commodity meeting to discuss ag issues
Posted on Mar 25, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Despite heavy rain and the threat of tornadoes, 195 members of Georgia Farm Bureau’s Commodity Advisory Committees and representatives of Georgia ag organizations drove through turbulent weather to meet at the GFB office in Macon on March 16 to discuss issues their commodities are facing and to review the organization’s policy pertaining to their crops or livestock. GFB policy staff gave the committee members updates on ag policy being considered at the state and national level.
GFB has 20 commodity committees – one for each of the major crops or livestock Georgia farmers produce, one for agritourism and direct marketing venues, and one for ag water issues.
During a lunch program, committee members got to meet Kevin Dancy, vice president and regional executive for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Because the Federal Reserve was meeting on March 17 and 18 to discuss the current economic outlook and set interest rates, Dancy was prohibited from discussing Federal Reserve policy or what the Fed might do regarding interest rates.
Instead, Dancy asked the farmers to share their thoughts on how rising input costs, particularly fertilizer and fuel costs, ag labor, tariffs and other factors are causing the economic problems they are experiencing.
“I spend my time traveling and talking to farmers, CEOs, industries, I mean everybody, nonprofits, government, to try to get a real-time picture of what the economy is doing and where things are,” Dancy said. “We can look at data, and it will paint one picture, but then when you get out and start talking to people, you get some color to that picture, and it’s not necessarily reflective of what the data says. We know that everybody’s experience is different. When you talk about low, moderate, middle class, working families, the experience of the economy is not the same booming economy that you see with folks that are invested in the stock market.”
The first question Dancy asked the group of Georgia farmers was, “If you saw interest rates cut, would you still borrow money?”
GFB President Tom McCall gave this answer, “If you drop interest rates, then, yeah, we’re going to borrow money. Ninety-nine percent of farmers don't have a choice. You have to borrow money to put in a crop and buy a piece of machinery or sometimes fix what you have, but what the Fed needs to understand is the money they {farmers} save on cheaper interest rates will go back into the economy. It's not going back into some savings account somewhere that’s not benefiting the general public.”
Dancy asked if having lower interest rates would help farmers tackle higher input costs.
Jeff Davis row crop farmer Jerry Wooten replied, “When I got out of high school in 1972 interest was about 8%. I could borrow $8,000 and farm 350 acres on it. I borrowed that $8,000 at 8% interest for $640 interest. That same 350 acres today costs $250,000 acres to farm. Let’s say I’m paying 5% interest that’s $12,500. You see how much difference you’re paying in interest to farm? Back then land was $400 or $500 an acre and now it costs $7,000-$8,000 an acre.”
Dancy also asked the group of farmers how more stringent regulations and higher input costs keep American farmers from being able to compete with farmers on the world market.
One farmer said the technology fees farmers pay for cotton, corn and soybean seed is a hindrance.
“You’ve got a couple of companies that have the monopoly on the seed we need to plant our crops. Brazil, one of our main competitors we’re having to compete with, they don’t pay the same seed fees we do,” Jeff Davis farmer Jamie Tate said.
Macon County peanut farmer Donald Chase said equipment costs are pushing input costs higher, requiring farmers to borrow more money.
“Our equipment costs are really driving it {higher input costs}. You need to make investments in equipment to stay current, to stay efficient, but those things have risen inordinately in the last five years,” Chase said.
Dancy asked the farmers if they are experiencing their lenders tightening credit and if this is causing farmers more financial stress and uncertainty.
In response, veteran farmers expressed their concern for how hard it is for young farmers to get loans to start farming because the banks need collateral.
“I’ve got two boys trying to get established. It’s a struggle for them to get the credit necessary to get established, to pay just cash flow,” said Troup County dairy farmer Joel Keith. “When I go to get a loan, the banks are now looking for my wife’s W-2, who has 40 years of teaching school. But my sons and their wives don’t have that advanced sweat equity or salary. If we want these young farmers to proceed forward with farming in this country, we’ve got to get this economic system behind these young farmers.”
Chase expressed concern that land ownership is becoming unaffordable for young farmers.
“I think everybody in this room is concerned that land ownership nowadays is almost out of reach for young farmers,” Chase said. “If we’re going to be sharecroppers again, I don’t know I could recommend that to my children.”
Dancy asked seasoned farmers to share the experience they are having when asking for operating loans.
“It's a combination of problems. The beginning of the problem is there’s no profitability because all the input costs are so high, the equipment is so expensive. You come to the point where the banker sits there looking at it, and he says, ‘This won't pencil out. You can't make a profit,’” Bacon County row-crop farmer Cory Tyre said. “So how are you going to be able to borrow money to grow a product that you can't make a profit? You’ve got to rotate your land. You got to be able to grow multiple crops. You can’t just base it on one crop. One crop is profitable this year. Well, that’s great, but you’ve got to farm for a year or two later also. So, you have to be able to grow multiple crops so that you can sustain your operation, because sustainability is key to farming. We’re not thinking about just this year. We’re thinking about next year and the year after that. But the problem is, you’re having to upgrade equipment. You’re having to get things fixed. It costs you so much more to buy the equipment, to upgrade the equipment, that you have to keep it operational. And then you’re looking at your input costs to buy seed and fertilizer going up exponentially.”
Dancy said the Fed is looking at resources it can offer and tools it can deploy to help farmers.
“Agricultural loans, particularly small farm loans, are a part of the Community Reinvestment Act. So, this is a tool that we have at our disposal that we can better educate financial institutions on,” Dancy said. “But the challenge comes in high concentration. When you get a rural bank that's in South Georgia that has a huge concentration of community development agriculture loans that are either facing this profit loss or this kind of work, it can look like a risk on that institution. And so that’s the part where we educate our examiners that know this is part of the industry and how the industry ebbs and flows.”
Decatur County Farm Bureau pecan grower Rob Cohen pointed out that farmers and agriculture are vital to the economic stability of rural economies.
“The farming dollar turns over seven times in the local community,” Cohen said. “It’s not only impacting us on the farm, it’s also impacting the lady that’s got the dress shop downtown and the guy who has a restaurant. Farmers being profitable is a big deal.”
When Dancy asked the farmers how big of a problem labor is for them, several explained that they need a viable, legal source of migrant workers because finding Americans willing to do manual farm labor is a problem. It’s a problem not only for large farms but also small, family farms.
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