One certainty for farmers in 2025 is that uncertainty will prevail. Farmers know they must befriend uncertainty because it remains their constant companion.

Farmers anticipate another year of low commodity prices and high production costs. They will watch their expenses and determine the best pricing opportunities to market their crops.

Indeed, the new Trump administration brings uncertainty. Will he put in tariffs that threaten exports and hamper commodity prices? Will the administration reduce the regulatory burden on farmers? Will President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to “drill, baby, drill” increase domestic oil and gas production, thereby giving farmers a much-needed break on energy prices? Time will tell.

Trump is known as a friend of the U.S. farmer. He is the only president who has spoken three times to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in 2018, 2019 and 2020.  The last president to address the nation’s largest farm organization before Trump was George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Ronald Reagan before him in 1983.

Notably, Trump spoke at Farm Bureau’s 100th annual convention in New Orleans on Jan. 14, 2019. “For 100 years, this organization has faithfully represented the men and women who are the backbone of our country, truly,” Trump said at the convention.

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Sonny Perdue, who served as Trump’s secretary of agriculture in 2017-21, said at the Southern Peanut Growers conference in Savannah, Ga., in July that Trump would always ask him, “How are my farmers doing?” Perdue said it surprised him a bit that a real estate developer from Queens showed so much interest in agriculture.

Hopefully, Trump will prove to be a friend to the U.S. farmer as the 47th president just as he was as the 45th.

He has been invited to speak at Farm Bureau’s 106th convention in San Antonio on Jan. 24-29. “As we have done for every president, Mr. Trump has been invited to speak at the AFBF Convention in San Antonio,” AFBF spokesperson Cyndie Shearing wrote in an email to me.

Will he come so soon after taking office? Hard to know.

Farmers are expecting another challenging year in 2025. They know they must focus on yield to make ends meet. After all of the weather challenges of 2024, they are due a cooperative weather year. That will go a long way in making their jobs easier. They need encouragement.