Low crop prices, high input costs could hurt corn and soybean farmers
Zac Soltvedt explains how he calculates the amount of corn in a field Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Seymour, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Farmers — a key voting bloc that helped propel President Donald Trump back to the White House in the 2024 election — are struggling.
In the past three months, US farm bankruptcies have surged to 93 filings, more than double the same quarter last year.
Soybean producers have been hit the hardest, largely due to the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing.
For years, American soybean farmers shipped nearly a quarter of their $60billion crop to China.
But Beijing responded to Trump’s tariffs with 20 percent levies of its own, making US products uncompetitive.
Imports from America have plunged to nearly zero, with Chinese buyers turning instead to Argentina and Brazil.
Farmers who planted months in advance to meet Chinese demand are now forced to foot the bill. In Illinois, soybean growers expect to lose about $64 an acre this year.
To keep more farms from going under, Trump is weighing $10 billion to $14 billion in bailout funds… (Continue to full article)
