While grain farmers dealing with a bumper crop and trade challenges are likely to lose money in 2025, the cattle business is the best it's been in decades, according to a Sept. 15 report in the Wall Street Journal. 

Cattlemen are making a record profit of more than $700 per animal, up from $2 just 5 years ago, according to industry estimates. However, the picture isn’t necessarily as positive for dairy farmers. 

We caught up with Chuck Walker from Kuhn North America this week at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., and he said both their row-crop and dairy customers are facing challenges this year. 

"We're both facing, both entities are facing some uncertainties, especially on the tariff side in the row crop. There's a lot of old storage of crop that needs to move and there's a bumper crop coming. So that is going to have to be moved. And will that be an uptick on sales of iron because they will need to buy? On the dairy side, milk is a little lower right now. They have to pay full for trucking, that used to be free. And so we're seeing a lot of the dairy side change that are keeping cows that should go to be culled, and they're keeping them for that expensive day old calf. So that has added more milk because that's a cow that would've been taken out of production. So yes, they're gaining, which they should be on the beef side with a calf, but then they're adding to a little bit of problem with maybe some overproduction."

Watch the full version of this episode of On The Record