By Pat Melgares, K-State Research and Extension news service
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Government payments and crop insurance helped to keep Kansas accrual net farm income mostly steady in 2024 compared to 2023, according to a report from the Kansas Farm Management Association.
KFMA Executive Director Mark Dikeman said his organization’s analysis indicates an average net farm income of $98,583, down just slightly from $100,618 in 2023 – a 2% drop.
“Dry regions of the state and depressed crop prices led to lower incomes for crop producers,” Dikeman said. “For those in the beef cattle sector, strong market conditions resulted in strong incomes, but also made the cost of replacement and expansion difficult. Government program payments, including payments accrued to the 2024 crop year, provided significant support to producers.”
Listen to an interview by Shelby Varner with Mark Dikeman on the weekday radio show, Agriculture Today
Dikeman said the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) in late December, 2024. Even though those payments weren’t received until 2025, on an accrual basis, the payments were earned in 2024. KFMA economists estimated those payments and included them in 2024 as accrued income at year-end.
“In 2024, the average government payment amount received by KFMA farms was $67,136 and the average accrued ECAP payment was $44,300,” Dikeman said. “Producers have just started to receive these ECAP payments, so cash was in short supply at year end.”
He adds: “We knew that cash would be tight into 2025 as well. Cash flow planning is more important for producers than it has been historically, especially looking back 2-3 years when profits were extremely high.”
Dikeman said crop insurance also had a significant effect on net farm income. Net crop insurance proceeds – indemnity payments minus premiums paid – averaged $24,600 for KFMA farms, or about $25% of total net farm income in 2024.
“When you put together net crop insurance and the government payments, that’s about 93% of our net farm income for the year,” Dikeman said. “Without those, net farm income looks pretty bleak.”
The report on 2024 net farm income reflects the averages for 761 Kansas farms working with KFMA economists in the six regions of the state. KFMA economists work individually with farm families to provide farm-specific production and financial management information that can be used for decision-making.
KFMA was formed in 1931.
By region/association, KFMA reported 2024 net farm income in Kansas as follows:
- Northwest — $139,605
- Southwest — $88,334
- North Central — $101,885
- South Central — $68,989
- Northeast — $73,379
- Southeast — $110,259
Dikeman and economists from the six KFMA regions recently gave an overview of net farm income during an interview on the weekday radio program, Agriculture Today, which is available online from K-State Research and Extension.
More detail is also available online in the 2024 KFMA Executive Summary.
