A recent report by CoBank expects the farm economy to tighten again this year and experts say that will lead to more farmers filing Chapter 12 bankruptcy. Those numbers have gone up since 2014 when there were 380 filings. Those increased to over 500 in 2017. Nebraska Farm Bureau Senior Economist Jay Rempe says farmers are still struggling and that likely will continue.

He says the one positive factor is that some producers have been surviving because they’ve had good working capital.

Rempe advises producers to keep good lines of communication open with their lenders, to develop a good marketing plan and take advantage of any marketing opportunities they see going forward.

Rempe says some Nebraska producers have been rebounding a bit but most of those are the pork and cattle producers while grain farmers continue to struggle.