HEBRON, Ky — After a whirlwind few years during COVID-19, national data forecasts farm sector income will fall in 2024. The prediction follows record highs during 2022.
Owners at one local farm told WCPO it’s still too soon to tell how 2024 will go, but they say some pandemic-related issues have resolved over the last year or so.
“It seems like everything's going back to normal,” said Jack McGlasson, a part-owner of McGlasson Farms.
McGlasson Farms has been around through six generations. In 2022, owners told us they’d never been through anything like the pandemic.
“Just like every other business,” Ginny McGlasson, a part owner, said about two years ago. “All of our costs have increased.”
Jack told us that supply chain issues have ironed themselves out, but costs are still up roughly 20-30% on fertilizer and pesticides.
“We’re still pretty, from a farming standpoint, pretty small scale,” he said. “The larger commodity folks who do corn and soybeans and all that, their margins are tight. It’s really hard for them. They're kind of playing the market and how pricing comes in on a vast scale.”
McGlasson Farms has slowly raised its prices, but owners say it hasn’t affected business.
“It's mostly just going to do a fun activity in the summertime that's cheap,” said Teresa Burkey, who visited the farm to pick blueberries Sunday.
The farm’s “U-Pick” business has surged over the last few years, now making up about half of the farm’s business alongside market sales.
Jack told us the farm has also benefited from Northern Kentucky’s population growth.
“We're getting people every year that have just never been before and they live five to 10 minutes away,” he said.
Many of their customers have continued to bring their children and grandchildren to the farm to share memories through generations.
“It might be a 30-minute activity for them, but we've worked on it for years,” he said. “It’s really rewarding to see people come out and enjoy what you've been working on.”
The farm is hosting blueberry picking now. Blackberry picking should open within a few weeks. The farm is also opening up peach picking for the first time this summer.
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