Researchers at UW-Madison recently published two research briefs highlighting Midwestern farmers’ views on farm financial programs and conservation.
The briefs, designed to support policymaking, summarize the results of a 2024 survey taken by 527 farmers across eight states. It covers row crops, forage, grass-based livestock, and confinement livestock production.
“Billions of dollars from the U.S. Farm Bill support farming in the form of crop and livestock insurance, loans, and conservation cost-share programs. We wanted to know how farmers view these programs, and which farmers perceive these programs as most helpful and satisfactory,” says Adena Rissman, professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, who led the development of the two research briefs.
A team of social science researchers at UW-Madison developed the survey in 2023. The surveys went to farm owners in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
“Looking at the results of the farm financial programs survey, you can see that different farmers perceive different levels of support,” says Yu Lu, a UW-Madison graduate student in forestry. Lu helped develop the survey questions, analyze the data, and produce the briefs.
“While insurance, loans, and cost-share programs are widely viewed as helpful for row crop operations, farmers with forage and livestock operations see fewer benefits,” Lu says. “This highlights the need to tailor financial programs to better address the unique challenges of diverse production systems.”
Findings in the farm financial program research brief include:
- 79% of farmers growing row crops found crop insurance moderately-to-extremely helpful, compared to 30% with grass-based livestock operations
- 80% of farmers growing row crops reported agricultural operating loans moderately-to-extremely helpful, compared to 53% with grass-based livestock operations
- 54% of farmers growing row crops reported conservation cost-share programs moderately-to-extremely helpful, compared to 40% with confinement livestock operations
- 62% of farmers supported having income caps for crop insurance, while 57% supported income caps for conservation cost-share programs (Note: Income caps mean the highest income farms would be ineligible)
- 53% of farmers supported decreasing the paperwork burden for conservation cost-share programs and insurance, while 52% supported decreasing the paperwork burden for loans
- 65% of farmers supported decreasing interest rates on loans
Findings in the conservation research brief include:
- 85% of farmers used conservation tillage on at least some of their cropland in the past five years
- 15% of farmers reported pollinator or prairie plants on at least some of their cropland and 15% had at least some tree planting
- 81% of farmers were moderately-to-extremely concerned with drought, 79% with heavy rainfall and floods, 70% with soil erosion, and 67% with water quality impairment
- 66% of farmers were moderately-to-extremely concerned with declines in pollinators, and 48% with declines in rare species
- In the past decade, 78% of farmers observed heavy rainfall and floods sometimes-to-extremely often and 73% experienced delays in planting by over two weeks
- 93% of farmers stated it is moderately-to-extremely important for a good farmer to minimize soil erosion, and 90% to minimize nutrient runoff into waterways
- 92% of farmers were moderately-to-extremely concerned with farm profitability
- 80% of farmers rated having the highest profit per acre as moderately-to-extremely important
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