General Discussion

and terms for payment. The local seed and fertilizer place doesn't ship you a huge amount of fertilizer and then "hope" you pay later. They want the money when you are doing the deal. Also you have to order ahead to reserve what you want because there is only going to be just so much supply and there are lead times to deal with. Most farmers have only a certain storage capacity for diesel and so do you buy now or wait and hope it comes down a little? Do you stay short on supply trying to hedge price and take a chance on supply disruption?

Having said all of this the crop "finance" system is another issue with farmers using the harvest to pay off bills and for money for the upcoming planting but the tariffs shot the crap out of the grain markets/shipments here in the US and so there is way less money to pay for the upcoming planting season. So many turn to USDA programs for financing and if you are already struggling you may not get all that you need. That supposed "help" that Crumb The 1st promised hasn't even landed for most of these farmers. Another lie.

There was a guy on MS Now over the weekend who is head of a farmers organization and he said in 2025 over 15,000 farmers went out of business.