WAHOO, Neb. (AP) 鈥� Strong winds whipped around Doug Bartek, a fifth-generation farmer, as he headed into a grain bin to shovel soybeans onto a conveyor chute. The 60-year-old was anxious at the onset of the spring planting season, rattling off the long list of issues affecting his family鈥檚 livelihood at their 2,000-acre farm near Wahoo, Nebraska.
The high cost of fuel, equipment, and fertilizer 鈥� compounded by the Iran war 鈥� and also tariffs, perceived 鈥減rice gouging鈥� by suppliers, and low soybean prices driven by a global supply glut. All of it weighs on Bartek, who is chairman of the Nebraska Soybean Association.
鈥淥ur biggest struggles are our inputs, be it fertilizer, seed, chemical, parts,鈥� Bartek said. 鈥淭here has been so much drastic markup in all of these. And I just kind of feel like the farmer鈥檚 kind of painted in the corner.鈥�
Bartek鈥檚 concerns are shared by many Midwest soybean producers. Costs, such as equipment, have crept up over time while soybean prices have stayed low. Tariffs levied by the Trump administration last year and the resulting monthslong trade war with China only made things worse, they say. Then the Iran war bottled up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, restricting and sending . A ceasefire deal announced April 7 raised hope that bottlenecks in the strait would abate, but the future of the agreement was uncertain.
鈥淎 lot of producers are pretty nervous going into this year,鈥� said Justin Sherlock, a soybean farmer and president of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association. 鈥淚t looks like we鈥檙e going to have another year of negative returns.鈥�
Years of rising costs, low soybean prices
Soybeans, which are used for livestock feed, food and biofuels, are among the top U.S. agricultural exports. That hasn鈥檛 always been the case. Before the 1960s soybeans weren鈥檛 a major crop in the U.S, according to Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. It wasn鈥檛 until the 1990s that soybean production accelerated due to international demand 鈥� primarily from China 鈥� and soybeans and corn are now dominant in U.S. agriculture.
But U.S. soybean farmers, who typically also grow corn, have been facing financial issues for years even before the onset of the Iran war. Soybean prices have been persistently low in recent years. The global market has been awash in soybeans, driven in part by Brazil, which surpassed the U.S. as the years ago.
鈥淚f we look at global soybean production over the past several years, it continues to set record, after record, after record,鈥� Hart said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been just large supplies globally, and that has led to depressed prices.鈥�
Meanwhile, Midwest soybean farmers鈥� costs have risen. Overall farm production expenses, including seed and pesticide, have increased over time, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Operating costs for soybean production have stayed elevated since 2020 and are projected to increase again in 2026, according to the agency.
The cost of land also is a major issue for farmers, experts say. Midwest crop land values have increased. And most regional farmers rent some of their land, according to Joana Colussi, research assistant professor in the department of agricultural economics at Purdue University.
Bartek, who rents three-quarters of his land, said landowners are increasing rents, causing further financial strain.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of what I call absentee landowners that have absolutely no idea what goes on on the farm,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll they know is their taxes went up and you get to make up the difference, some way, somehow.鈥�
鈥淭hey鈥檙e very concerned about negative margins driven by low prices and high cost,鈥� said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, of farmers. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just a liquidity cash crunch for a lot of them and they鈥檙e just trying to figure out how to deal with everything.鈥�
The number of farms in the U.S. has shrunk over time and consolidation in farming is a long-term trend, though farmers鈥� financial pressures wrought by high input costs and low commodity prices have contributed, Hart said. Larger farms tend to be more competitive and depend on large, expensive machinery.
鈥淭he financial reserves need(ed) on a farm are much greater than they used to be,鈥� Hart said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a bit more sensitive to the financial conditions these days because so much capital is being utilized within the farm business.鈥�
Tariffs, trade war have lasting impacts
Market forces aren鈥檛 the only issue weighing on farmers. levied by President Donald Trump in April 2025 exacerbated a trade war with China, the China responded with retaliatory tariffs and effectively boycotted U.S. soybeans, for Midwest farmers and driving the price of soybeans even lower.
鈥淲hen that was announced and soybean prices basically collapsed, if you could afford to hold on to your beans and wait for better times, you were OK,鈥� said Mike Cerny, a soybean, and winter wheat corn farmer in Sharon, Wisconsin. 鈥淚f you had a mortgage due or payments due or cash flow needs and you had to sell at that point, you were taking it pretty rough.鈥�
The U.S. and China eventually . Beijing committed to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans by January and at least 25 million metric tons annually for the next three years. China has since and the Trump administration also rolled out a in December to boost farmers affected by the trade war.
But the damage is already done, experts and farmers say. While China鈥檚 renewed purchases and the federal payments are helping, it鈥檚 not enough to recover farmers鈥� losses. Even after federal assistance, farmers still lost almost $75 per harvested acre of soybeans in the 2025 crop, according to the American Soybean Association. And the trade war further pushed China toward competing soybean exporters, 鈥� accelerating a trend of declining U.S. soybean exports to China.
鈥淲hen China decided to stop purchasing, we couldn鈥檛 find enough other markets to replace those sales,鈥� Hart said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still feeling the impacts today. When you look at where soybean exports are today versus where we would normally expect them to be, we鈥檙e still running anywhere from 15% to 20% behind normal.鈥�
Joseph Glauber, former chief economist at the Department of Agriculture between 2008 and 2014, said global competitors to U.S. soybean farmers gained from the trade war.
鈥淲hen China has put on tariffs against the U.S. they鈥檝e tended to buy then from Brazil or Argentina, largely Brazil,鈥� Glauber added. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not nearly as dominant in the world as we used to be in terms of the global export market for soybeans.鈥�
Iran war drove up fuel, fertilizer costs
After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, a severe slowdown in shipping traffic through the sent the price of oil soaring. The shipping disruption also largely stopped the export of nitrogen fertilizers manufactured in the Persian Gulf and limited access to key fertilizer ingredients. The price of urea, the most widely traded nitrogen fertilizer, skyrocketed.
Soybeans don鈥檛 require nitrogen fertilizer, but it鈥檚 vital for corn and most soybean farmers also grow corn. About half the global supply of urea comes from the Middle East, and Qatar and Saudi Arabia are two of the top sources of U.S. fertilizer imports, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
The U.S. and Iran last week that included reopening the strait of Hormuz, but traffic remained slowed amid disagreements over Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and the price of urea remains elevated.
Many Midwest farmers bought their fertilizer well in advance of the spring planting season. But some farmers who didn鈥檛 buy early face elevated prices. Dave Walton, a corn, soybean, and hay farmer in Iowa and vice president of the American Soybean Association, said in March that some of his neighbors didn鈥檛 have cash on hand last fall to buy fertilizer and were struggling to budget for fertilizer due to high prices.
The war also caused , causing further headaches for farmers. following the ceasefire announcement, but the war and the closure of the strait will have lasting impacts on farmers, said Seth Goldstein, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, an investment research company. Facilities in the Middle East that are critical for exporting chemicals, oil and other commodities were damaged or destroyed during the war and it will take time for supply chains to recover, he said.
鈥淔acilities have been hit, like liquid natural gas plants,鈥� Goldstein added. 鈥淵ou are also looking at a big supply crunch in commodity chemicals, which are the inputs for crop chemicals.鈥�
鈥淲e burn a lot of diesel fuel,鈥� said Chris Gould, a corn and soybean farmer in Maple Park, Illinois. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to say if I鈥檓 gonna come out ahead or behind on this whole deal. But I suspect I鈥檓 gonna come out behind.鈥�
Concerns about the future
Farmers鈥� financial problems are showing up in some measures. Farm bankruptcies, while still relatively low, continued to climb in 2025, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. In a survey of 400 farmers conducted by researchers at the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture in late March, almost half said their farm operation is financially worse off than it was a year ago.
Goldstein, the Morningstar analyst, said farmers鈥� high costs and low revenues contributed to the spike in bankruptcies between 2024 and 2025. If costs rise faster than crop prices going forward, he added, that 鈥渨ould strain farmers again and likely lead to more bankruptcies.鈥�
After 43 years of farming, Bartek said the smell of fresh dirt still gets him excited for spring planting. But he鈥檚 also heard of farmer suicides, bankruptcies and 鈥渞etirement sales鈥� where farmers are forced to auction off their operations due to financial problems. Bartek compares farmers to gamblers who put 鈥渕illions of dollars in the dirt鈥� hoping for returns.
At times, Bartek doubts his own decision to go into farming. He鈥檚 also worried about his son, who purchased a farm a few years ago.
Bartek wonders: 鈥淒id I do the right thing helping him get into farming?鈥�
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Kelety reported from Phoenix.
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