The USDA released a report on farm income.

Farmers have been in a financial squeeze for the last five years, with sharp declines in land prices and credit ratings. Yet 1984 was a record year for net farm income, the Agriculture Department said. “Net farm income in 1984 was a record $34.5 billion, slightly above the previous record of $34.4 billion of 1973 and more than double the $15 billion of 1983,” the report said. There was no adjustment for inflation. One reason for the large surge in 1984 was a return to bumper crop production following drought and the government’s PIK acreage program in 1983, when farmers reduced planting sharply in return for free government-owned commodities as payment in kind.