Fifty-four percent of farmers find conservation cost-share programs moderately to extremely helpful for row crop production, compared to 40% for confinement livestock.
January 2, 2025
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently published two research briefs highlighting Midwest farmers’ views on farm financial programs and conservation. The briefs summarize the results of a 2024 survey taken by 527 farmers across eight states, covering row crop, forage, grass-based livestock and confinement livestock production.
“Farmers make important decisions that impact food, water, wildlife and soil. Billions of dollars support farming in the form of crop and livestock insurance, loans, and conservation cost share programs from the U.S. Farm Bill. We wanted to know how farmers view these programs and which farmers perceive these programs as most helpful and satisfactory,” said Adena Rissman, professor in the UW–Madison College of Agricultural & Life Sciences who directs the PIE Lab: People, Institutions and Ecosystems and who led the development of the two research briefs.
The survey was developed in 2023 by a team of social science researchers at UW–Madison. Surveys were sent to farmers across eight states in the Midwest between December 2023 to April 2024, and 527 were returned, for a 16% response rate. For this project, Rissman worked closely with Yu Lu, a UW–Madison graduate student, to develop the survey questions, analyze the data, and produce the briefs.
“Farm financial programs play a crucial role in supporting farmers, but our results show that they help some farmers more than others” Lu said. “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. This highlights the need to tailor financial programs to better address the unique challenges of diverse production systems.”
She continued, “For conservation, farmers are clearly prioritizing soil and water conservation, but the lower adoption of pollinator and tree planting practices highlights areas where additional support could make a big difference.”
The farm financial program brief touches on farmers’ views of crop and livestock insurance, agricultural operating loans, and conservation cost-share programs, as well as their support for policy changes like reducing paperwork burdens and implementing income caps. The conservation brief delves into the adoption of conservation and biodiversity practices, farmers’ experiences with various farm challenges and the characteristics they prioritize for being a “good farmer.”
Findings in the farm financial program research brief include:
79% of farmers growing corn, soybeans, and other row crops found crop insurance moderately to extremely helpful for those crops, compared to 30% of farmers with grass-based livestock.
80% of farmers reported agricultural operating loans moderately to extremely helpful for row crop production, compared to 53% for grass-based livestock.
54% of farmers reported conservation cost share programs moderately to extremely helpful for row crop production, compared to 40% for confinement livestock.
76% of farmers were moderately to extremely satisfied with staff performance, versus 61% for paperwork load.
62% of farmers supported having income caps for crop insurance while 57% supported income caps for conservation cost share programs. Income caps mean the highest income farms would not be eligible.
53% of farmers supported decreasing paperwork burden for conservation cost share programs and insurance while 52% supported decreasing 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, 67% with water quality impairment, compared to 92% for farm profitability.
66% of farmers were moderately to extremely concerned with declines in pollinators, and 48% for declines in rare species.
78% of farmers observed heavy rainfall and floods sometimes to extremely often and 73% experienced delays in planting by over two weeks in the past decade.
93% of farmers considered minimizing soil erosion as moderately to extremely important for being a good farmer, and 90% for nutrient runoff into waterways.
80% of farmers rated having the highest profit per acre as moderately to extremely important.
This research is supported by National Science Foundation Grants Innovations at the Nexus of Food-Energy-Water and Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program.
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