Farm Raw Product Wholesalers NAICS 4245

Nov 23, 2025 - Record Harvest Projected

• President Trump’s signing of the spending bill ending a historic 43-day government shutdown, not only reopened the government but extended the 2018 Farm Bill for another year and allowed the USDA to resume operations, FarmProgress reports. During the shutdown, the USDA missed six weekly crop progress reports, leaving farmers without government data during the crucial harvest and peak trade season. Still, with the harvest season drawing to a close, a Reuters poll of nine analysts estimated the US soybean harvest was 96% complete and the corn harvest was 92% finished as of November 9. Indeed, farmers are harvesting what’s been projected as the biggest US corn crop in history along with a bumper soybean crop. Meanwhile, farmers are nearly finished planting winter wheat for harvest in 2026. Analysts on average estimated winter wheat planting as 95% complete as of Nov. 9, according to the Reuters poll.
• Leading indicators for the farm sector’s financial health all show elevated risk, according to the latest report from the Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center. The report tracks 14 financial indicators organized in four classes: Farmer and banker sentiment; Farm income and balance sheet health; Farm machinery market dynamics; and Credit quality. The risk rating (on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being low risk and 10 high risk) is 6.2. The farm machinery market showed the biggest signs of deterioration, with a risk rating of 5.7, while farm income and balance sheet health, and credit quality carry a risk rating of 5.8 each, and farmer and banker sentiment at 5.9. The forecast shows a decline in net cash income for the two crop farm business types: a 1% decline for specialty crops farm businesses and a 14.8% drop for corn farm businesses.

• Farm raw products wholesalers have a lot riding on the merger of the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads: About 3.2 million rail cars of grains, oilseeds, and other agricultural products move by rail on an annual basis, representing more than 10% of all rail shipments, and 26% of grain has at least one rail movement, according to the National Grain and Feed Association. The $85-billion proposed merger would create the nation’s first transcontinental freight railroad, connecting over 50,000 route miles across 43 states and linking some 100 ports, according to Union Pacific. In 2023, more than 80.5 million tons of corn, 26.3 million tons of soybeans, and 25.8 million tons of wheat were shipped by rail, per the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The companies are targeting an early-2027 close for their merger, which faces intense scrutiny from the Surface Transportation Board.
• Producer prices for farm product raw material merchant wholesalers tumbled 22.7% in August compared to a year ago, after falling 5% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Wholesale prices of farm raw products are volatile and are impacted by swings in prices for farm commodities including grains, crops, and livestock. Employment by the industry was flat year over year in July, according to the BLS. Industry inventories fell 4.9% in July from June and were down 2.6% year over year, according to the Census Bureau’s July Wholesale Trade Survey. Inventory levels generally peak in the winter months as distributors build stocks, then decline later in the year.