Rural Response Hotline fielding more calls from farmers worried about finances, drought

The long-standing Rural Response Hotline is seeing an increase in calls from farmers who are stressed over finances.

Since the 1980s farm crisis, the hotline has been a wide-ranging resource for ag families when it comes to issues such as mental health assistance, natural disasters, family problems or financial distress.

Michelle Soll, the farm and ranch project director for the hotline, said it received 4,968 calls last year, with an increase occurring within the last few months of 2024. This year, the hotline helped 1,154 callers between January and March.

Soll, who’s been with the program for more than 30 years, said financial stress is one of the most common calls the hotline is receiving right now. According to hotline statistics, 260 calls received so far this year have been from farmers or rural residents who are stressed over finances. That’s on track to beat last year’s count of 337 people who were seeking help for financial stress.

“When I look back at past years, I don’t know if [financial stress] has been in the top five, because most of them are always either adjustment issues, family issues or marital issues,” Soll said. “But now it is definitely in the top five reasons for someone seeking counseling.”

Soll said people calling in financial distress are often pointing to lower commodity prices and drought as their primary concerns. She saw a similar increase in calls several years ago following widespread drought in Nebraska.

“It’s normal to work through cash flows this time of the year, but we have definitely seen an increase in calls and an increase in assistance in working through distress,” Soll said. “This year, we’ve seen more distressed cash flows than in previous years.”

Brad Lubben, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln agricultural policy specialist, said many producers are concerned about the outlook for the ag economy in 2025, as prices for corn, soybeans and wheat have fallen from record highs in 2022. While prices are decreasing, many farmers are dealing with production costs that are still high.

“They’re not shrinking nearly as quickly,” Lubben said. “In fact, they’ve been relatively sticky, and so prices are lower, costs are still high and margins are getting much tighter. That hurts profitability projections for 2025, and that hurts cash flow positions for producers.”

Lubben pointed to costly inputs such as fertilizer, chemicals, machinery, land and labor, which are making deep impacts to relatively good crop prices.

“We’re on a high wire, and the margin is still just as tight,” Lubben said. “But we’re falling from much higher levels.”

Ranchers, on the other hand, are benefitting from a strong livestock market. Demand is high, and cattle producers are expanding their herds following the 2022 drought, which forced many livestock owners to take their animals to the market earlier than usual. With another dry year expected in 2025, Lubben expects ranchers to be just as concerned about crop production later this year, since lower yields could mean higher feed prices for their animals.

“We are still coming off of very strong economic returns for the ag production sector in general,” Lubben said. “We can weather this downturn, but we still have to manage it. For some producers it’s a pretty severe crunch.”

Lubben said there isn’t necessarily a drought when it comes to federally funded economic assistance recently offered to ag producers who are facing tough economic situations. However, he said it’s unclear if more assistance will be offered, especially to relieve potential losses from President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade disputes.

“If we see trade losses, ag groups are asking for – and expecting – there will be a response from the administration to help fill that gap,” Lubben said. “That happened back during the first Trump administration when there were tariffs, retaliatory tariffs and trade conflicts with several trading partners. There were a couple of years of trade assistance offered directly to producers.”

But Lubben said government assistance can take time to roll out, especially if legislation doesn’t demand a payout by a certain deadline. If more assistance is made available in a timely manner, Lubben said the U.S. may end up with a very strong farm income picture for 2025.

“The aggregate numbers may end up looking very strong because of additional government payments; yet, at the individual farm level, in many cases, we're going to feel the crunch of lower prices, higher costs and tighter margins,” Lubben said.

Farmers, ranchers and rural residents experiencing times of crisis can utilize the Rural Response Hotline by calling (800) 464-0258.