Federal Trade and Health Policies Add to Concerns for North Dakota Farmers

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring. (Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota’s agriculture commissioner warned lawmakers this week that federal trade and health policies are exacerbating concerns of farmers already worried about low ag commodity prices and high production costs.

In order to keep up, the average farm in North Dakota is borrowing 12 to 20 times more than the  average farm did in the 1980s, Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said.

“We’ll have to ride through this and see what happens,” Goehring told members of a legislative committee.

That borrowing could be a ticking time bomb, according to Rep. Mike Brandenburg, a Republican from Edgeley who also is a farmer. The lawmaker said farmers are “going to work really hard, take the crop out, and lose some money again” this year. Then this winter “bankers are going to put the squeeze on” any farmers who owe money and don’t have equity, he said.