Axios Des Moines: “Iowa Farmers Face Some of Their Toughest Times Since 1980s Crisis”
Axios Des Moines: “Falling Crop Prices and Stubbornly High Costs Are Squeezing Iowa Farmers”
DES MOINES – Iowa farmers are facing one of their worst financial crises in decades, according to a new report from Axios Des Moines. Ashley Hinson’s support for the war in Iran is sending fertilizer and diesel prices skyrocketing, while her defense of chaotic DC tariffs created costly trade wars that have plunged crop commodity prices.
“Under Ashley Hinson’s leadership in Washington, Iowa farmers are staring down the worst farming crisis in decades,” said Iowa Democratic Party Spokesperson Drew Myers. “Farmers know something needs to change before it’s too late. The way out of this mess won’t be sending Hinson to the U.S. Senate after she’s demonstrated time and again that she’d rather put politics ahead of Iowa.”
Axios Des Moines: Iowa farmers face some of their toughest times since 1980s crisis
- Falling crop prices and stubbornly high costs are squeezing Iowa farmers, with some warning that the strain rivals the 1980s farm crisis.
- State of play: Crop commodity prices have fallen from pandemic-era highs, with corn dropping from near $6–$7 per bushel to the low-$4 range and soybeans from $13–$15 to around $10 per bushel.
- Meanwhile, fertilizers — often the single highest cost for farmers — have remained near peak levels.
- Diesel, used across nearly every part of farming, has surged since the start of the Iran conflict, with prices in Iowa around $4.80 per gallon, up from about $3.40 a year ago.
- What they’re saying: Mark Mueller, a northeast Iowa farmer and president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, tells Axios that the current state of farming is more challenging now than at any time since the 1980s farm crisis.
- He says the stresses are showing, with rising bankruptcies and lenders becoming more reluctant to provide farmers with operational loans.
- “There’s going to be fewer farmers next year than there is this year,” Mueller said.
- Context: The U.S. ag economy has been in a recession for the last couple of years, and could become potentially deeper than an ag slump from about a decade ago, Iowa State economist John Crespi tells Axios.
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