West Des Moines, Iowa — One of the state’s largest independent agricultural banks is releasing the results of its annual survey of thousands of farmers, gauging their opinions on a range of topics.
Bank Iowa president and CEO Jim Plagge says 67 percent of farmers surveyed said they believed the ag economy would be the same or stronger in 2023, while more than 70 percent felt they were in the same shape or better off financially as the prior year.
While finding people to work on an Iowa farm remains a challenge, the survey also shows farmers are mainly concerned about finding the right people to work on the farm.
The number-two concern on the survey was labor expenses. Plagge says farmers can’t be complacent about qualified labor. He suggests Iowa farmers may need to “become their own universities, training the next generation with hands-on-the-farm apprenticeships.”
The survey finds technology is leading the way in terms of investment decisions. In the past two years, the percentage of farmers who say they’re considering investing in ag tech jumped from 22 to 36 percent. Plagge notes, it’s the larger farms that are willing to invest more than smaller ones.
The survey found nearly every farmer reported implementing some type of ag tech into their operations, with automation technology being number-one, followed by livestock tech and artificial intelligence. West Des Moines-based Bank Iowa is the state’s second-largest family-owned bank, with locations in 23 communities. You can see the full report at bankiowa.bank/AgIndex.
