Oregon Public Broadcasting

The overall profits of Oregon’s farmers have hit a record high. For 2007, the Department of Agriculture registered a net farm income of $1.48 billion.

The record high comes after weaker profits in the two previous years. The Agriculture Department says the 2007 increase is mainly due to higher prices for farming products worldwide.

Brent Searle is a state Agriculture Department economist. He says some farmers in Oregon didn’t do as well as others. That’s because they had to deal with record high expenses.

Brent Searle: “Pretty much everything went up on the farm, just as many things went up off the farm -- fuels, fertilizers, feeds.  Feed costs were up significantly and that effected all aspects of livestock, poultry, dairy and so forth, and so their margins were pretty thin.”

Searle says among the more profitable products were wheat and fruit.

He says the price rally for certain products is likely to end this year or next because worldwide production has gone up.