The Des Moines Register has been talking to farmers at the Iowa State Fair. Things are looking grim in the markets right now, although that isn’t stopping farmers from holding out hope.
Tariffs dominate discussions inside the Iowa State Fair's livestock barns
Sitting at a picnic table at the Iowa Pork Producers tent, Gregg Hora, Art Halstead and Mark Meirick hash over what low prices will mean for farmers.
Waiting for higher prices next summer could mean 10 months of losses, said Halstead, who works for a contract grower that raises pigs for others. "You've got to get to June," he said.
"If you have everything paid for, you can hang on for a long time. But if you've got a lot of debt, and a lender who's leery about what's going on, it could end in a hurry," said Meirick, who owns Farmers Mill, a feed supply and elevator in northeast Iowa.
While farmers may be willing to dig in their heels and wait for better prices, the downstream effects will still be hurting their friends and neighbors:
Meirick, who lives in Protivin, said he's worried about the impact the ag downturn will have on rural communities, already hurting with corn and soybean prices cut more than half since hitting record highs in 2012.
"Farmers aren't buying extra machinery. They're not building new machine sheds. It's going to affect our local lumber dealer, our local equipment dealer, our local bank in our little town of 300 people. And the elevator where we're at," he said, adding that risks will grow the longer the tariffs last.
As an aside, since we’re talking Iowa State Fair, take a moment to enjoy some photos of this year’s butter cow sculpture, which is also joined this year by a butter sculpture of a 1918 John Deere tractor.