Nebraska’s New Generation Agriculture

Aggregate net farm income in Nebraska in 1999 was $1.66 billion. While this is a substantial dollar amount, it is also misleading in two important ways. First, 1999 aggregate net farm income was nearly 20 percent below the average for the 1990\u27s. Second, a whopping 80 percent of the aggregate net farm income, or $1.32 billion came directly from Federal Farm Program payments. As recently as 1996, government payments were only 11% of Nebraska’s aggregate net farm income (Johnson and Burkholder). In other words, very little of today’s net farm income in Nebraska comes from the economic marketplace. This situation is not likely to be sustainable over the long-run. Published in Cornhusker Economics. May 1, 2001. Produced by the Cooperative Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln