Kate Huffman stood in her soybean field the other night.

She’d been walking beans and pulling waterhemp. She’d walked and pulled and walked and pulled — she has a strict no-waterhemp-through-the-combine policy. She bent down, pushed the beans back so she could get a hold of the waterhemp, and there they were: a dozen tiny waterhemp plants.

Like an army of relentless robots with an enviable will to live. Marching on.

How in the world? It was unending. Overwhelming. Seemingly unwinnable.

And it was a field that had given Kate’s family fits all season: a planter problem, a seed variety that didn’t emerge well, phytopthera root rot, annual weeds early on, now waterhemp that won’t quit.

Then a couple of dozen numbers ran through Kate’s head; she’d spent time that week collecting 2025 input prices. They were higher. Commodity prices were not.

How in the world?

“I broke in the middle of a bean field. You go to pull the big waterhemp and you pull back the beans and there’s all the new growth coming in,” Kate says.

“And it’s like, are you kidding me? What is the point?”

She stood there and cried. A farmer in her field.

Kate farms in Henry County, Ill., with her parents and brother, and she works off the farm as a financial officer. That means she spends her days helping farmers solve farm financial problems.

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She knows she’s not alone in her despair over the coming year.

Downward cycle

Farmers well know that the marketing year for corn and soybeans is ending with steep declines. Look out your window at the largely lush crops across Illinois (waterhemp notwithstanding), and you’ll have a good idea of the bumper crop expectations this market holds. But prices on seed, fertilizer and chemicals are steady, if not higher.

Land values continue to hold steady, too. According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, the average farm real estate value for Illinois in 2024 is $8,700 an acre, up 3.3% from $8,420 in 2023. Compared to 2015 values of $7,430, that’s a 17% increase in 10 years.

Note that land continued to increase from 2023 to 2024 despite lower farm income projections and higher interest rates.

What’s it all mean? In short, the land market hasn’t caught up to net farm income projections. Elizabeth Strom is a farm manager with Murray Wise Associates in Champaign, Ill., and she still sees farm sales hitting high numbers — maybe not quite as often, and land may sit a little longer, but she says it’s still a good market overall.

Still, Kate sees young farmers going after land. The Farm Service Agency offers significant incentives for young farmers, and they know there’s a good chance the farm next door only comes up for sale once in their lifetime. So despite taking on $900 to $1,000 an acre in debt costs, they’re biting the bullet. They’ll make it work.

Related:On the farm: Debt is up and income is not

That shows deep optimism for the business of growing food.

Remember the ag cycle

What’s it going to take to ride the wave of the down cycle?

Kate would tell you her written marketing plan has saved her this year because it jerked the emotion out of the sale. Hit a trigger, sell. No waiting on home runs.

“I’m very thankful I stuck with that plan,” Kate says. “If you told me last fall that the sales I made when I booked anhydrous would’ve been my highest for this year, I would’ve laughed.”

But now her guaranteed bushels are forward-priced. Her plan saved her.

“It’s very hard in a down grain market to sell, because we always hope it’s gonna go right back up. But it may not. It’s not even my breakeven right now.”

So Kate’s in the place a lot of farmers are in. Stop the bleeding. Minimize the loss.

But c’mon. That’s not the mindset any successful person wants to have. We want to win. We want to achieve. We want to raise a big crop and sell at the right price.

Honestly, this may be the year to reframe that mindset. This year, maybe success is being the best of the best at surviving.

Know the trends. Know your numbers. Negotiate hard. Make a marketing plan and follow it.

And be like Kate: If you feel that deep-in-your-chest despair, talk to someone. You are not alone. You’re worth more than the land you farm.

Kate shared her breakdown with her dad, who’s raised close to 50 crops in his 70 years. He gave her some perspective.

Agriculture is a cycle. It always comes back around. And Illinois farmers are tough. They have great resources, like Farm Business Farm Management, farm organizations — and the pages of this very magazine.

Then he told her, “This is why we do what do as a family. It’s hard. But we get through it together.”

And that’s a family farm.

Who to call when you need to talk

There’s no stress like farm financial stress, and the Farm Family Resource Initiative Helpline is a confidential service available 24/7 to all Illinois farm families. Here’s how to reach out:

You’ll talk to someone who knows agriculture. Plus, FFRI provides telehealth counseling services with Southern Illinois University Medicine counselors, offering up to six free sessions for individuals, couples or groups. There’s no reason not to call.

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