Farm Supplies Wholesalers NAICS 424910

Nov 23, 2025 - Anxious Farmers Await Aid

• Aid promised to farmers by the Trump administration now that the government has reopened may arrive too late, according to The New York Times. It could take months for farmers to receive aid, well after the winter planning period when farmers meet with their bankers and make decisions about spring plantings, NYT reports. Typically, farmers take out a production loan in the winter to purchase farm supplies and equipment and then repay the loan in the fall after they harvest and sell their crops. But analyzing farmers’ business plans is much tougher if their bankers do not know when, or if, there will be government assistance. Trump’s injurious trade policies, along with high production costs and record low commodity prices have put many US farmers in a precarious financial position. In Iowa next year agricultural income is projected to sink 24% per a new report.
• 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.

• Industry pushback regarding the impact of pesticides on children’s health in the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s first report released in May, resulted in the removal of one of the only mentions of ‘reducing’ pesticide use in the final draft issued in September, Civil Eats reports. In the months between the two reports, agriculture industry groups criticized the mention of pesticide use as harmful and lobbied the White House for changes. Rather than restricting pesticide and toxic chemical use or taking a more precautionary approach to safety evaluations, the second report merely tasks the Environmental Protection Agency with working to reform the approval process for chemical and biologic products to protect against weeds, pests and disease. Critics of the revised report argue it abandons major reforms and the policy recommendations amount to a public relations campaign with few effectual changes, according to CE.
• Employment by farm supplies wholesalers remained flat in July compared to a year ago, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by the industry is seasonal, typically peaking in the second quarter, coinciding with spring planting season, and declining in the fall as farm activity slows. The average wage at farm supplies wholesalers rose 3.1% year over year in July to $30.35 per hour, easing from its peak in June, BLS data shows. Inventories for miscellaneous nondurable goods wholesalers, which includes farm supplies, increased 2.5% YoY in July but fell 2.2% versus June. Farm supply inventories typically peak in the first quarter as distributors stock up for the spring planting season.