DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- With large crops and low prices, leaders representing corn and soybean farmers are pressing the need for more demand for their crops, whether it is selling more biofuels or re-establishing export sales with China.
Leaders from the American Soybean Association (ASA) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) at the Farm Progress Show this week found themselves in constant conversations about market conditions and what it will take to turn around the economic challenges they face.
Asked about the prospect of aid payments, farm leaders described potential ad-hoc government payments as a "Band-Aid on a gushing wound" that won't solve the underlying problems.
Each group sees a different need for their crops.
ASA is pressing the Trump administration to reach a trade deal with China. The lack of China buys for the 2025-26 crop year leaves a gaping hole in demand that can't be replaced.
NCGA wants Congress to approve year-round E15 before the end of the year. Corn exports are already strong, but E15 legislation would greenlight ethanol producers to increase their production.
FINANCIAL CHALLENGES ACROSS CROPS
Matt Frostic, a farmer from Applegate, Michigan, and an NCGA board member, said he has been getting calls about input prices for next year's corn crop. "That is just as disheartening as it is to look at the low corn prices," he said.
The National Corn Growers Association this week released a series of reports looking at corn production costs. The reports compare how input costs have risen compared to the price of corn, as well as the impact of inflation. Production costs, for instance, hit a record average of $928 an acre in 2022, but have only come down about 3% since then, NCGA noted.
"Inputs are kind of structured in a $7 market, and we're in a $3 to $4 market," Frostic said. "Obviously, that makes it difficult to do profitable things when the structure is built that way right now."
Scott Metzger, a farmer from Williamsburg, Ohio, and a vice president for ASA, said his area of Ohio suffered a drought last year that brought down production. The lower production has been compounded with the current low prices. Farmers in his area have seen their working capital eroded, he said.
"It's tough, and working capital is something that takes a little bit of time to build back up," he said. "You just don't do that overnight."
More farmers are starting to express concern about their current operating loans and getting financed for next year's crop.
"There's definitely a sentiment in the farm community and in a lot of areas across the Midwest," Metzger said. "That's definitely getting talked about. I mean, the bottom line is there will probably be people farming this year that won't be farming next year."