Farmers await better prices under new trade deals

In a year of low commodity prices, big ticket machinery wasn’t likely flying off the lot when Farmfest set up west of Morgan, Minnesota, the first week of August.

“I’m going to need to grow 400 bushel corn to make money this year,” Rep. Brad Finstad said from the Farmfest stage during a panel on ag policy Aug. 5.

The Republican is a member of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and farms near New Ulm, Minnesota.

A stronger market for ag products is one answer he sees for low crop prices.

“We want to farm for a market,” he said. “We don’t want to farm to run down our driveway to the mailbox to see what the government is going to put in our mailbox to help us succeed for another year.”

His comments came shortly after the newly confirmed Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden lauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s work to deliver assistance for economic and weather disasters. That included nearly $8 billion in Emergency Commodity Assistance Program money that went to more than 571,000 farmers across 49 states, according to Vaden.

“At USDA, we are mindful that farm economy is not where it should be,” he said.

The agency has been working with President Donald Trump to negotiate trade deals, he said. That includes an agreement with the United Kingdom to buy more American livestock and ethanol and putting pressure on Canada to allow American dairy products across the border.

An agreement with the European Union in late July will pave the way for easier imports of pork and dairy to European countries. Another agreement with Japan will increase U.S. rice imports there by 75% in addition to Japan’s promise to buy $8 billion in U.S. goods. Those goods include corn, soybeans, fertilizer, bioethanol and sustainable aviation fuel.

Speaking ahead of the afternoon panel on the Farmfest stage, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said trade is big for Minnesota as the nation’s fourth largest ag exporter, but more than 100 tariff changes in the last few months have affected the state’s economy.

Fellow Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of District 2 also doesn’t like tariffs as a negotiating tactic, calling them a “new tax on Americans.”

Craig is a ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, and while she’s pleased to see updates to crop insurance, tax deductions and reference prices in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed July 4, she said those issues should have been taken care of with a new farm bill. Klobuchar also criticized the Big Beautiful Bill for favoring Southern crops like peanuts over corn and soybeans.

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-District 8, from Duluth, said the bill is not perfect, but it’s very good legislation, focusing his comments on new work requirements for Medicaid and efforts to remove non-citizens from the program that were part of the bill.

Vaden said the bill will protect farmers’ operations for “years to come,” thanks to safety net programs, more certainty in the tax code and removal of the death tax for more families.

“Because of that, people can continue to farm,” he said. “That is exactly what farm policy should do.”