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Talk to the room.

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Thank you.

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Fuel and fertilizer.

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The cost of them has spiked due

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to the war in Iran that has

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disrupted crude oil fields and

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transport, as well as the export

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of fertilizer.

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On farms in Wisconsin, growers

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consider their crops and spring

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planting in the face of this

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price volatility.

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Wisconsin Farmers Union President

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Darren Van Ruuden is here with

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more. He joins us from Westby, and

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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

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saying about the price shocks

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happening right now?

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Well, lots of concerns.

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You know, some of our members

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actually were able to book their

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inputs last fall.

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So probably aren't going to see that

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sticker shock this spring, like we

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are amongst other members

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that don't

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have the ability to, because of cash

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flow problems, buy that.

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So they're right now probably

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examining, do we stay with

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corn and need to put more

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nitrogen on the ground?

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Or should we look at a small

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grains crop or do we plant

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more soybeans?

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Just because of that price of

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fertilizers has increased so much in

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the last two weeks here.

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What are the ways the increased

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cost of fuel impact producers?

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Well, really in all aspects,

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number one, it costs more to get the

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items that we need to

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produce the crops to the farm.

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There are surchargers that are

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co-ops in process or

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delivery folks will be charging.

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It's gonna cost more to put the

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crop in the ground unless you

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were able to book that

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fuel earlier, which

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doesn't happen very often.

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And then just to get the

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products that we produce to the

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consumer through the processors and

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distributors, we're probably

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going to be seeing surcharges on

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those deliveries

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too.

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The Trump administration just

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waived a 100-year-old shipping law

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to speed up oil and fertilizer

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shipments ahead of spring planting.

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How welcome is that?

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Well, you know, if it helps in that

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price of what the cost is to

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get by that gallon of diesel or that

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gallon of gas, you know, it

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certainly is welcome news.

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But I'm hearing that it's,

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it probably will have very little

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impact on it because, you

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know, planting season is

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probably two weeks away in southern

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Wisconsin here right now.

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So can that really impact what's

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going to happen on day one when

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farmers need to be in the fields?

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Big question, Mark there.

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Yeah, for sure.

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So how difficult is it to

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move from corn to

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soybeans or other crops just

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kind of on a dime here?

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The biggest thing is

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is the availability of the

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seeds.

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So, you know, farmers generally

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try to have that contracted earlier

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delivery, you know, at this time of

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year, those seeds are being

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delivered to the farm.

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So if your supplier

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has adequate supplies of both,

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you're in good shape.

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But some years,

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they'll the people that we

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buy from are trying to guess

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what farmers are going to do.

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And so could be one

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or the other.

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Small grains is another issue

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because a lot of suppliers don't

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necessarily have Large

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quantities of that seed available.

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So it might take two to three weeks

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to get that to come in from another

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source

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So even ahead of the war in Iran,

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how have Wisconsin farmers weathered

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tariffs and resulting markets?

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Yeah, certainly.

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You know, last year was not a good

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year for farmers on

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the on the economic side.

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A lot of farmers posted losses

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in corn and soybeans, especially

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because of that disruption

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in the marketplace and not having

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those overseas buyers to buy that.

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You know, we have weathered a little

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bit of that with

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the increased prices that

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we've seen after President Trump

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denounced some of the trade deals

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with China.

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But we still haven't seen all

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of those markets come back to the

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level that they were two,

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three years ago.

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How meaningful have one-time

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payments out of Washington to offset

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tariff losses been for farmers

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in Wisconsin?

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Well, it certainly has helped ease

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some of the pain between

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the banker and the farmer, because

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they were able to pay maybe a

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bigger portion of the

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operating loan that they had.

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But in reality, when you look at the

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real numbers, it was only

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about 15% of what farmers

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needed to pay for their

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production costs.

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So in the end, we're still quite

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a bit behind on that process.

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You know, farmers generally want to

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receive our income from the

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marketplace and not depend

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on Uncle Sam to send us

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a check when we're in dire needs.

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And so with the trade war

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that we had, you know, those market

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conditions were really

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impacted in a negative way.

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And it's really a frustration of

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farmers that we need to

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depend on the federal

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monies to come in, in order to pay

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bills.

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Alright, Darren von Rudden, thanks

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for explaining all this to us.

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Thank you, Francisco.

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That I didn't get to and it's,

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I don't know if it's serious or not,

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but how are

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farmers managing that huge

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snowfall that hit?

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Yeah, you know, overall,

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fairly well, I would say, you

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know, there were resilient

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bunch and they do.

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I haven't heard of any roof

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collapses or anything like that,

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that we've had in years past.

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But there could be some that you

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just haven't heard about.

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But you know the biggest thing is

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as long as the snowplows can get the

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roads cleared, we can keep

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the milk going in and keep the

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animals moving where they need to to

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and I

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hear every once in a while about a

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farmer maybe getting a tractor stuck

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with a brownbill to get out to

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feed animals, but generally

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if they need help from a neighbor

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you'll get that and make sure

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that the animals are happy as

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can be in that kind of weather.

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Good. Well, thank you.

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Enjoy this spring weather.

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Thank you, Frederica.