As soybean farmers harvest their crop after a difficult growing season, they are facing a farm economy that resembles “death by a thousand cuts,” Tennessee Soybean Promotion Council Executive Director Stefan Maupin said. "Persistent inflation since the pandemic has made it more expensive for farmers to produce crops, and weather extremes over the last year mean they will see a significant loss in yield," he said.
On top of that, bushels will soon hit a market where prices are low and the largest soybean export partner, China, is entirely absent amid trade negotiations with the Trump administration. “We’re in a significant and desperate situation where … none of the crops that farmers grow right now return a profit,” Maupin said. “They don’t even break even.” Another year in the red will be tough to survive for farmers still struggling to recover from last year’s losses, he added.
-NAFB