Ag Industry Trends & Outlooks

Discover insights, trends, ag market outlooks and other topical information as it relates to the Northeast's diverse agricultural industries. Brought to you by Knowledge Exchange from Farm Credit East.
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Knowledge Exchange Partner

Knowledge Exchange Partner

Dairy Markets Show Both Upside and Concern

This month's Knowledge Exchange Partner article contributors Corey A. Geiger and Abbigail C. Prins of CoBank, outline a mixed outlook for U.S. dairy in 2025, noting strong retail sales and export potential but weak restaurant demand and rising costs. They highlight a historic drop in cow culling, surging butterfat production, and global herd challenges, suggesting cautious optimism for the industry’s future.

June 9, 2025

Milk bottles on the supermarket shelf

Latest From Today's Harvest Blog

Cow milking facility and mechanized milking equipment
Business Tips and Tools
Grant Writing Success for New York Dairy Farmers

As the region celebrates Dairy Month this June, the New York agricultural community has even more reason to cheer: Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced that $21.6 million has been awarded to 103 farms through the Dairy Modernization Grant Program.

June 30, 2025

Featured Webinar

Soybean field at sunset
Ag Economy
2025 Grain and Oilseed Industry Outlook

In the recent webinar, Farm Credit East, Horizon Farm Credit and CoBank Lead Economists, Tanner Ehmke and Jacqui Fatka, explore the latest insights on U.S. grain and biofuel markets. With record soybean and corn harvests, profitable storage options and recovering export demand, the landscape is shifting.

January 6, 2025

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Tag: cost of production 
Farmer loading pickup truck with corn harvest in field
Knowledge Exchange Partner
Farm Credit East Production Cost Index Plateaus at New High

After a rapid rise in 2021 and 2022, the Farm Credit East Production Cost Index has plateaued after relatively modest increases over the previous decade.  This index tracks farm production costs on a relative basis, weighted towards costs that affect Northeast producers most. Major components of the index include labor, energy, family living expenses, crop inputs, as well as costs like animal feed and other dairy-related expenses, given that sector’s prominence in our region.

May 06, 2024

Knowledge Exchange Partner
Rising Input Costs, Falling Commodity Prices to Squeeze Producer Margins in 2023

Dr. Bob Maltsbarger, senior research economist with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, gives his insights on continued high input costs and the state of the cash grain and oilseed industries for 2023 in this month's Knowledge Exchange Partner.

April 01, 2023

Female farmer standing in cow barn with dairy cows, looking at tablet
Crop Insurance
Understanding Your Milk Check

Understanding your milk check is a crucial piece to your operation’s revenue and risk management strategy. Milk checks vary between cooperatives and who you sell your milk to, but breaking it down by how the line items on your check are calculated can help you determine your mailbox price and what you are paid.

March 07, 2023

looking up from the ground at a man with baseball cap on standing in cornfield working on a digital tablet,
Business Tips and Tools
Understanding your Cost of Production

Risk management is the name of the game. If you know your Cost of Production (COP), your risk management strategy can set you up to preserve three things: liquidity, equity for future investments and equity for retirement. 

February 06, 2023

Northeast Economic Engine

Download Farm Credit East’s Northeast Economic Engine report, which analyzes the economic impact of the Northeast agriculture, forest products, commercial fishing and food manufacturing industries. This report was released in October 2024. 

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Cover of the 2024 Economic Impact report