Each February, US Agriculture, LLC (“USAg”) asks its operators and tenants to participate in a brief survey reflecting on the past year and highlighting concerns for the upcoming season. With a 90%+ response rate, 50 grower responses in 2025, the survey plays a key role in shaping our Annual Sustainability Report and helps guide how we support our farm partners.
In recent years, we’ve added a forward-looking component, asking growers to rate their level of concern—“Not a Concern,” “Low,” “Medium,” or “High”—on several critical topics:
- Climate Change
- Labor
- Foreign Competition
- Pesticide Resistance
- Pest/Disease Pressure
- Government Policy
- Profitability
- Access to Capital
- Trade Policy
These insights help us better understand how to position USAg’s resources to address what matters most to our growers. The survey results are shown below.
What’s Keeping Growers Up at Night?
Entering the 2025 crop year, the top concerns were:
- Trade Policy
- Profitability
- Government Policy
These concerns weren’t surprising. As a new Trump administration took office, proposed tariff strategies stirred anxiety in the ag sector. The March 2025 Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer echoed this sentiment, showing trade policy as the issue respondents believed would most affect their businesses over the next five years. Nearly half expected a new trade war to decrease U.S. agricultural exports; only 25% believed it wouldn’t have an effect.
In short: uncertainty around trade and profitability loomed large as growers headed into the season.
What’s Not as Concerning?
Interestingly, climate change and access to capital ranked lowest among current concerns.
Why? Many growers see climate change as a long-term challenge—not one likely to disrupt operations in the immediate year. That said, many of our operators already implement practices that build resilience, like increasing soil organic matter with cover crops or adopting precision ag technology. At USAg, we’re also playing our part—investing in drainage systems, erosion control, and smart irrigation to improve efficiency and reduce risk.
The lower concern around access to capital likely reflects that most growers had secured financing for 2025, signaling a degree of financial stability. However, if profitability becomes increasingly stressed, we will monitor this closely in future surveys.
Why It Matters
Understanding farmer concerns isn’t just good stewardship—it’s smart investing.
At USAg, we believe farmland investing can be a win-win for landowners and for the growers who steward the land. That starts with listening. By aligning our actions with operator feedback, we can help reduce uncertainty, invest in resilience, and create shared success for years to come.
