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>> Fuel and Fertilizer. The
cost of them has spiked due

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to the war in Iran that has
disrupted crude oil fields

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and transport, as well as
the export of fertilizer on

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farms. In Wisconsin,
growers consider their

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crops and spring planting
in the face of this price

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volatility. Wisconsin
Farmers Union President

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Darin Von Ruden is here
with more. He joins us from

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Westby. And thanks a lot
for being here.

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>> Thanks for having me
this morning.

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>> So what are your farmer
members saying about the

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price shocks happening
right now?

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>> Well, lots of concerns.
You know, some of our

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members actually were able
to book their inputs last

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fall, so probably aren't
going to see that sticker

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shock this spring. Like we
are amongst other members

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that don't have the ability
to because of cash flow

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problems by that. So
they're right now probably

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examining, do we stay with
corn and need to put more

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nitrogen on the ground, or
should we look at a, you

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know, small grain crop or
do we plant more soybeans

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just because of that price
of fertilizers has

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increased so much in the
last two weeks here.

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>> What are the ways the
increased cost of fuel

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impact producers?
>> Well, in really in all

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aspects, number one, it
costs more to get the, the

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items that we need to
produce the crops to the

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farm. There are surcharges
that are co-ops in process

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or our delivery folks will
be charging. It's going to

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cost more to put the crop
in the ground. If. Unless

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you were able to book that
fuel earlier, which doesn't

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happen very often. And then
just to get the products

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that we produce to the
consumer through the

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processors and distributors,
we're probably going to be

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seeing surcharges on those
deliveries to.

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>> Now. The Trump
administration just waved a

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100 year old shipping law
to speed up oil and

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fertilizer shipments ahead
of spring planting. How

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welcome is that?
>> Well, you know, if it

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helps in that price of what
the cost is to get by that

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gallon of diesel or that
gallon of gas, you know, it

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certainly is welcome news,
but I'm hearing that it's

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it probably will have very
little impact on it because,

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you know, planting season
is probably two weeks away

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in southern Wisconsin here
right now. So can that

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really impact what's going
to happen on day one when

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farmers need to be in the
fields? Big question mark

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there.
>> Yeah for sure. So how

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how difficult is it to move
from corn to soybeans or

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other crops? Just kind of
on a dime here.

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>> The biggest thing is, is
the availability of the

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seeds. So, you know,
farmers generally try to

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have that contracted
earlier delivery. You know,

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at this time of year, those
seeds are being delivered

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to the farm. So if your
supplier has adequate

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supplies of both, you're in
good shape. But some years

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they'll the people that we
buy from are trying to

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guess what farmers are
going to do. And so could

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be shorted one or the other.
And small grains is another

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issue because a lot of
suppliers don't necessarily

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have large quantities of
that seed available. So it

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might take 2 to 3 weeks to
get that to come in from

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another source.
>> So even ahead of the war

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in Iran, how have Wisconsin
farmers weathered tariffs

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and resulting markets?
>> Yeah, certainly, you

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know, last year was not a
good year for farmers on

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the on the economic side, a
lot of farmers posted

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losses in corn and soybeans,
especially because of that

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disruption in the
marketplace and not having

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those overseas buyers to
buy that. You know, we have

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weather, a little bit of
that with the increased

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prices that we've seen.
After President Trump

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announced some of the trade
deals with China, but we

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still haven't seen all of
those markets come back to

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the level that they were
two, three years ago.

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>> How meaningful have one
time payments out of

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Washington to offset tariff
losses been for farmers in

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Wisconsin?
>> Well, you know, it

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certainly has helped ease
some of the pain between

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the banker and the farmer
because they were able to

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pay maybe a bigger portion
of the the operating loan

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that they had. But in
reality, when you look at

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the the real numbers, it
was only about 15% of what

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farmers needed to pay for
their production costs. So,

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you know, in the end, we're
still quite a bit behind on

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that process. And, you know,
farmers generally want to

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receive our income from the
marketplace and not depend

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on Uncle Sam to send us a
check when we're in dire

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needs. And so with the
trade war that we had, you

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know, those market
conditions were really

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impacted in a negative way.
And it's really a

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frustration of farmers that
we need to depend on the

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federal monies to come in
in order to pay bills.

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>> All right. Darin Von
>> All right. Darin Von