Many of us are too young to remember or know who the humorist Will Rogers was. However, there is one thing he said that rings true with agriculture producers around the world.
“The farmer has to be an optimist otherwise he still wouldn’t be a farmer.”
That phrase has been paraphrased and reused in so many ways, that it is hard to get an accurate count as to how many variations it has had. All that aside, there is no loss to the truth in those words. We have to look forward with a hopeful eye, because the minute we can’t, we should no longer be in farming.
Being optimistic is much different than reacting to what is happening. We face negatives in farming at every turn. We react to them, and we know that there is always grumbling that goes with it. The outlook is always positive. Maybe it is even positive despite what is really happening. Either way, that is what is going on as we look to 2024.
Jacquie Holland is a grain market analyst with Farm Futures and she says rural communities and farmers still seem to be the barometer by which we measure the overall economy, and they seem to be optimistic.
Holland says that farmers don’t seem to be making any drastic changes to their 2024 plans. While, on one hand, it may seem negative that they aren’t being very aggressive, it is also calming that they aren’t being too conservative either. It’s just the status quo.
Will this continue to be the measuring stick of how the market moves overall in 2024? That remains to be seen. All we know is that the eternal optimists are looking for the rays of sunshine anywhere they can find it.
