{"id":7545,"date":"2025-07-22T20:19:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T20:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2025-07-22T20:19:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T20:19:29","slug":"listening-to-the-land-what-our-growers-are-saying-about-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/listening-to-the-land-what-our-growers-are-saying-about-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to the Land: What Our Growers Are Saying About 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Each February, US Agriculture, LLC (\u201cUSAg\u201d) 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent years, we\u2019ve added a forward-looking component, asking growers to rate their level of concern\u2014\u201cNot a Concern,\u201d \u201cLow,\u201d \u201cMedium,\u201d or \u201cHigh\u201d\u2014on several critical topics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Climate Change<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Labor<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foreign Competition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pesticide Resistance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pest\/Disease Pressure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Government Policy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Profitability<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Access to Capital<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trade Policy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These insights help us better understand how to position USAg\u2019s resources to address what matters most to our growers. The survey results are shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"977\" height=\"386\" src=\"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/concerns-chart.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/concerns-chart.png 977w, https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/concerns-chart-300x119.png 300w, https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/concerns-chart-768x303.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Keeping Growers Up at Night?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Entering the 2025 crop year, the top concerns were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Trade Policy<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Profitability<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Government Policy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>These concerns weren\u2019t surprising. As a new Trump administration took office, proposed tariff strategies stirred anxiety in the ag sector. The <strong>March 2025 Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer<\/strong> 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\u2019t have an effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short: uncertainty around trade and profitability loomed large as growers headed into the season.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/barometer.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7547\" srcset=\"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/barometer.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/barometer-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/barometer-768x557.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Not as Concerning?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, <strong>climate change<\/strong> and <strong>access to capital<\/strong> ranked lowest among current concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? Many growers see climate change as a long-term challenge\u2014not 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\u2019re also playing our part\u2014investing in drainage systems, erosion control, and smart irrigation to improve efficiency and reduce risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why It Matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding farmer concerns isn\u2019t just good stewardship\u2014it\u2019s smart investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each February, US Agriculture, LLC (\u201cUSAg\u201d) asks its operators and tenants to participate in a brief survey reflecting on the past year and highlighting concerns for the upcoming season. With&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7548,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7549,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions\/7549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us-agriculture.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}