2022 marks tough year for Delmarva farmers, as costs further strain profit margins

SALISBURY, Md- With 2022 winding down, farmers in Delmarva say the year was one that was filled with challenges.
Farmer Virgil Shockley tells 47ABC that while costs didn’t jump as high as last year, they are still way up from just two years ago.

“You can’t run a farm on 6-dollar diesel it does not work,” Shockley said.

He tells us the year started with shortages and ended with price hikes for essential materials for corn and soybean farming.

“You had to deal with Covid, with fertilizer shortage, seed corn shortage, you had to deal with chemical increase so by the time you’re done basically the cost of doing businesses per acre went up by almost 100 dollars,” he said.

He expects that figure to rise at least another 30 dollars per acre in 2022.

He says contracts for corn at 7 dollars kept his farm in business, but with the average price on the open market below that, he believes a price hike has to happen to keep corn viable.

“You need an 80 cent increase in corn to offset the input cost that you’re going to put into the crop,” he said adding “beans were the downer because we didn’t get the rain in august so your running instead of 60 bushels you’re running in the mid-30s so the price was good we just didn’t have enough yield.”

He tells us he expects his operating costs to go up even higher next year with equipment costs rising as well as chemical costs staying above their pre-pandemic pricing.

“Chemical prices haven’t gone down there t still up where they were a year ago fertilizers prices dipped about 5 percent below where they were seed corn are 20 dollars a bag higher which translates to ten dollars an acre more,” he said.

Shockley says the year also saw a measure to allow farmers to repair their technology without the need for special licensing software fail, which he says leads to even simple repairs requiring a pricy visit to a specialized dealer, who has exclusive access to fix the technology.

“Everything built from 2012 on needs a laptop, and they don’t sell that and you can’t get it you have to go the manufacturer, As soon as they flip up that laptop they are going to charge you and this was something that was in the legislature and it failed but it would have given us the right to repair,” he said.

Shockley says he has been setting up contracts for bulk orders far in advance, looking to lock in as many discounts as possible.

“This is the time we are planning for 2023 and beyond so we are looking at those bulk orders, seeing what gives us a 10 percent discount or more and moving money around if you have it, but these input costs just keep going up,” Shockley said.