It’s almost harvest time for Ohio’s farmers. And this year, many of them are facing some tough choices. Recent tariffs put in place earlier this year by President Trump are taking their toll on some. The heavy rains in Ohio followed by drought are also affecting crops this year.
Near the Pennsylvania and Ohio border, there are 200 acres of soybeans that farmer Sam Smail said he's not particularly happy with this year. He blamed the summer weather, which ranged from excess rain to no rain at all, inflation, and the impact of tariffs, which have made it more expensive to get what is needed to grow the beans.
"Basically, our input costs are about double in the past five years, fertilizer, spray, equipment fuel, and this year, you know, we had a lot of rain getting them in so they were late getting in and now we had the dry weather so they were very small and the cost of them isn’t going up," Smail said. "My boys sent me something from about five years ago that show the input costs are double, and we are still getting paid the price ten years ago for the soybeans."
And that's not all. Smail said tariffs are taking their toll on farmers.
"It’s affecting the prices. Seven years ago, we were getting $15 to $17 a bushel. This year, we are barely meeting $10. So that’s a big drop."
Ohio Farm Bureau Federation Communications Director Ty Higgins said soybean farmers in Ohio are hurting right now because of tariffs.
"China hasn’t bought anything from U.S. farmers this year. And it wasn’t long ago that a third of the soybeans that we grew here in Ohio went to China. So there’s a lot of market share that we are missing," Higgins said.
Higgins said while farmers in other parts of the country are expecting record yields, Ohio farmers are not.
"When you look at the “I” states —Indiana, Illinois, Iowa—and they are talking about record yields and we’re not here in Ohio, it doesn’t bode well for the crop prices," Higgins said. "Supply and demand kind of takes hold and we are seeing commodity prices that are equal to those that we saw in 1974."
Farmers are doing what they can to make up for it by not fixing equipment or storing crops, hoping they will bring more later.
Some farmers are impacted more than others
Not all farmers are feeling the pain equally.
Mark Meyer has a small organic soybean farm near Marysville and sells soybeans to customers in Ohio and nearby states, so he’s not affected as much by not being able to export to other countries. And when it comes to inputs, that’s not as big of an issue either.
"The reason why is because I’ve built up my soil to where I don’t need fertilizer anymore. I don’t use sprays. I cultivate everything," Meyer said. "All I have is my time and fuel and I use my own seed."
Farmers looking for ways to offset their losses
Many conventional farmers are diversified and that helps in years like this.
Chris Gibbs has cattle on his Shelby County farm, along with other things. Because beef prices are high, he’s hoping he can recoup some of his soybeans losses. Gibbs said he's paying more for everyday items, even when he's dealing with American companies like John Deere, which has some parts that are made in China. But he said he learned something about tariffs in the first Trump administration.
“President Trump had applied punitive tariffs on all of our traditional trading partners and then, because the markets came apart, we started to lose exhorbitant amounts of money, particularly in soybeaus, he offered hush money to keep us quiet," Gibbs said.
That "hush money," as Gibbs called it, came in the way of federal subsidies. And those haven’t been offered to farmers so far in this tariff tiff.
Ohio farmers and politics
That loss in 2018 was enough for Gibbs to make some changes, including political ones. Gibbs, who had chaired the Shelby County Republican Party, now heads the Shelby County Democratic Party. He's also the leader of the Ohio Democratic Party’s rural caucus. Gibbs said farmers throughout Ohio are talking to him about the increasing cost of farming.
Gibbs said farmers have political clout they might not realize with federal and state lawmakers.
"They are petrified of farmers. And this is the time for farmers to stand up and say, we demand trade. We want trade with China. We want trade with the Pacific Rim. And not just these minor trade deals where we’re increasing from not very much to just a little more," Gibbs said. "We want real trade to push these commodities out because I’ll tell you, the best way to extract foreign dollars and put them right into rural communities is through trade.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are reaching out to farmers
Will Rogers once quipped: “The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer. Same goes for a politician.”
At this year's annual agriculture trade show known as the Farm Science Review, Dr. Amy Acton was making the rounds. The only announced Democratic candidate for governor said she's been talking to farm families, especially women.
“They own farms that are shared farms. They do the books on farms. They’re talking about costs," Acton said in an interview. "It turns out the cost of health care that somebody asked for a second job off the farm just to have health insurance.”
Acton said the farmers she speaks to talk about the cost of housing, property taxes, and public education – all issues where she thinks Democrats can offer a better deal.
But getting farmers, who have been voting Republican for decades, could be a hard sell.
Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy was also at the Farm Science Review, and has been talking to farmers who say they will continue to support the GOP. And him too.
"I’m honored to have the support of Ohio’s grain farmers, our corn and wheat farmers who made the first endorsement they’ve made the first endorsement they’ve made in over thirty years for a gubernatorial candidate, and I think that speaks volumes," Ramaswamy said in an interview.
Ramaswamy said he has a plan to alleviate some of farmers' property tax burden. So far, the political arm of the Ohio Farm Bureau hasn't endorsed anyone for governor, but in the past has favored Republican candidates for various offices.
Farmers want less talk, more action
Farmers said they want more than political promises and platitudes. They say they want lawmakers to pass policies to help ensure farming continues for generations.
In the meantime, many farmers said are changing the way they do business. And some smaller family farmers are giving up altogether or selling out to larger farm operations. Smail said in his county, less than a dozen farmers are responsible for nearly all of the farming.
“They’re getting bigger because you have to do the quantity to make the profit," Smail said.
The big questions this year are whether the profit will be high enough so that farmers can offset the losses, whether any losses they have in income might affect the way they look at politics in the future.
