2024 hasn’t been particularly good for most farmers. According to the USDA, farm net income is projected to fall 27 percent across all commodity crops, with corn and soybeans seeing the greatest profit decline.(1)
Those statistics make us examine what to do to make 2025 better. You make many decisions every year based on experience, markets, and historical trends. Here are the key areas to keep in mind when you’re creating your 2025 cropping and grain sales plan.
Spread Out the Risk
With corn and soybeans taking the biggest hit two years in a row, what can you do to mitigate the risk of a third year of falling prices? Diversify your crops.
Look at historical trends. What crops have been on the rise? If you’re a dairy farmer, you know your milk profit margin is slim. But have you researched the A2 milk market? It is a challenge to transition to an A2 herd, but do the math: is it profitable in the long run?
If you want to continue growing corn and soybeans, have you researched the trends for non-GMO crops? A recent study found that 23 percent of consumers look for the “non-GMO” label in the grocery store.(2) Could you get a premium for non-GMO crops?
Farming is hard work, and there many risks. If you’re willing to add diversity to your farm, start small. Keep good records and plan to repeat in 2026 what gave you the best profit margins in 2024 and 2025.
Grow What You’re Good At
This seems obvious, but it’s not. What gives you the best productivity may not give the highest profit margin. Keep an eye on what seems to be easy for you to grow. What crop or crops give you the least headaches?
Have you already diversified into industrial hemp, millet, or another high-value crop? How difficult was it to change? If it’s not too hard and you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on equipment, do you think you could get really good at these crops? Could you grow them without any synthetics to sell at a premium?
Are You Taking Soil Health Into Account?
For short-term and long-haul profits, keep an eye on your soil health. We’ve become conditioned to think that synthetics and chemical fertilizers will keep improving yield. Studies are showing the beginning of crop yield plateaus. Crops are reaching their yield limits, which may be based on genetics, climate change, soil degradation, and the diminishing returns of traditional agriculture, or most likely, a combination of these factors.
Before crops meet their yield limits, they will have already reached their farm profit potential. That is if you’re depending on synthetic inputs—which keep getting more expensive—to maintain yields.
Converting to regenerative agricultural practices gives you short-term gains and increases soil health for the long haul. Break down the costs for cover crop seeds, non-GMO seeds vs GMO seeds, herbicides, and other inputs.
The increase in soil health is an outcome that is harder to set a number on. Beneficial microorganisms such as fungi and nematodes don’t survive tilling or synthetics. But bacteria and many pathogens have adapted to harsher environments, like your conventional fields.
Talk to a trusted crop consultant about the pros and cons of regenerative and conventional agricultural practices. For farm profit and plant and soil health.
Coordinate Your 2025 Cropping This Winter
This is the time of year to coordinate all the data you’ve accumulated and make a grain sales plan. Figure out exactly what quantity you’ll need for seeds, fertilizers, and synthetics for next year. Decide if you’re going to rent that underperforming acreage again this year. You have to get your economic ducks all in a row.
It’s also the time to make sure all your equipment is working. The physical component of farming is less nerve-wracking if you go into the 2025 season knowing you’ve done everything you can to make sure nothing breaks down. There’s nothing worse than a perfect planting day in the spring spent unclogging nozzles that are plugged up with last year’s residue.
Even the best plans and perfectly working machinery are no match for Mother Nature. This past year, spring was wet, and a lot of crops got in late. Do you have a plan B for when Mother Nature throws a wrench into your cropping plans next year?
Farming is like a huge chess game, and you’re playing with the grand master of them all, Mother Nature. Always plan at least three moves in advance, because she does.
Remember: productivity doesn’t equal profit. Selling a farm product with a high nutritional profile, a high-end market, or is scarce all add up to a higher ROI. At the end of the day, a farm is a business. Aren’t you interested in making it profitable so your family can remain on the land for generations to come?
Contact our team at ST Biologicals. We’ve been farming and raising livestock for more years than we’d care to count, and we’re here to help you succeed. When soil speaks, we listen. And that’s good news for you.
