Ag Industry Trends & Outlooks

As of 12:01 AM October 1, 2025, the Federal Government has shut down until congress can agree on a funding bill. It’s anyone's guess as to how long the shutdown will last, so in the meantime, here’s what agricultural producers should know. 

Early in 2025, the federal government announced an Executive Order aimed at modernizing how federal payments are handled. Under Executive Order 14247, signed in March 2025, all federal disbursements and receipts will transition to electronic formats by September 30, 2025. This change will impact individuals, businesses and organizations that receive or make payments to the federal government. 

GenerationNext is a seminar series designed to help emerging agricultural professionals — particularly those in farming, fishing or forest product businesses — develop essential management and business skills. I’ve taught several sessions over the course of my Farm Credit East career, and here’s the value I believe participants gain from GenerationNext. 

With harvest upon us, apple bins are being filled and moved into storage. While this is a busy time of year for growers, it’s important to ensure you are proactively keeping track of production. We all have different ways to capture production information — whether it be a software with bin tags, hard copy logs from each trucker or sales records. The most important thing is the record keeping is done accurately.