Ad hoc government payments are providing a critical lifeline to U.S. farmers who have been battered by weather disasters, trade wars and a severe economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the country’s farm economy is likely to soon face a reckoning as those emergency cash infusions recede, ag economists said recently dur­­ing an ag outlook conference in Kansas City sponsored by the AgriPulse news service.

“This level of ad hoc govern­ment support is really not sustainable,” said John Newton, sen­­­­ior economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). “One of the things we are starting to talk with our membership is where do we go from here. How do we get back to...