Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Rodd Moesel, along with Jackson County Farm Bureau member Matt Muller, recently discussed some of the challenges facing Oklahoma farmers and ranchers in a story published on the front page of The Oklahoman on Saturday, Nov. 9.
After a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation announced that Oklahoma had experienced the country’s largest year-over-year increase in Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies, The Oklahoman’s Jack Money explored the challenges that have plagued farm country over the years including natural disasters, commodity prices, input costs and trade disputes.
Many Oklahoma farmers are facing a rise in debt levels, Moesel told The Oklahoman.
“People are using up the cash they had saved up and have gone back to borrowing,” Moesel said in the story. “You need a really good year, every now and then. The problem grows when you go year after year without one. The mood wasn’t great last year or the year before, but each year, it gets bleaker.”
Jackson County Farm Bureau member Matt Muller – who farms cotton, wheat and sorghum near Altus – told The Oklahoman he is worried the industry’s current struggles will prevent his children from coming back to the farm.
“Right now, I have two sons in college studying agriculture,” Muller said. “They would like to come back. If things look too lean when they graduate, they may pick another field to go break their back in to make a buck.”
