Soybean industry suggests opportunities to improve farm economy
October 30, 2025 | Bethany Baratta
The Senate Judiciary committee this week heard from farmers and others to shed a light on competition issues in the seed and fertilizer industries.
“Farmers across the country are shouldering significantly higher input costs, particularly for seed and fertilizer,” said Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the committee and native Iowan, in his opening remarks.
“Rising input prices squeeze already thin margins, especially when combined with volatile commodity markets, higher borrowing costs and weather risks.”
The goal of the hearing was to understand the problems and discover workable solutions, Grassley said. These include:
- Transparency: farmers deserve to know the effective price they’re paying, including how rebates and claw backs really work, and whether wholesale fertilizer declines are being passed through in a timely way.
- Portability: farmers ought to control their own data and move it — quickly, completely and affordably — so they can seek independent agronomic advice without fear of losing their history.
- Fair dealing: contracts and dealer programs shouldn’t operate as de facto exclusive arrangements in rural counties where there might only be one or two full-service outlets.
- Accountability: when mergers don’t deliver what was promised on paper, agencies should look back and fix it.
American Soybean Association (ASA) President Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer, told the committee that commodity prices have fallen by an average 50% since 2022. Production costs have had an inverse price relationship, Ragland noted.
“Soybean farmers are expected to net a $109 per acre market loss on their crop this year,” the ninth-generation farmer testified.
According to USDA, farm production expenses are expected to reach $467.4 billion for 2025 – a $12 billion increase over 2024.
The ongoing trade impasse with China makes matters worse, he said.
“We are facing immense export market losses with our largest customer – China – turning to our South American competitors for soybean purchases. Due to retaliatory tariffs imposed by China, soybean farmers have lost our biggest export market,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Ragland said farmers can’t realize potential biofuel market opportunities until the administration finalizes the rule for 2026-2027 Renewable Fuel Standard volume obligations and guidance for the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit.
He provided three “immediate, achievable” opportunities to improve economic conditions for U.S. soybean farmers as negotiations with China continue and the administration works to expand new export market opportunities:
- Provide tariff relief on inputs – Removing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs on critical inputs such as fertilizers, seed, pesticides, machinery, and parts will immediately lower production costs for farmers. While farmers are still wrapping up the 2025 harvest season, they will soon enter the planning stage for the 2026 crop. This autumn and winter, farmers are going to have to make painful financial decisions as they source their inputs for next year. Providing tariff relief will remove one added cost from that equation.
- Finalize biofuel policies to expand domestic market opportunities for U.S. soy – The 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit and proposed 2026-2027 Renewable Fuel Standard volume obligations are poised to drive investment in domestic soybean processing and biofuel production. As of today, we understand that the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) may not finalize 45Z tax guidance until the spring, effectively stalling biofuel production and investment. We encourage the Treasury to promulgate new 45Z guidance that corresponds to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act revisions much sooner than next spring. We also urge the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize the proposed 20262027 biofuel volume obligations this year, including the new mechanisms developed to stem the growing surge of imports cannibalizing the biofuel market share for soy. Swift finalization of these policies will spur domestic market growth for soybeans by supporting a key value-added market.
- Provide targeted farmer assistance – While farmers would prefer robust markets for their crops and healthy operating margins, the current state of the farm economy means that many farms will not survive into the 2026 growing season without a financial bridge. Farm assistance is desperately needed to offset trade-related losses and the negative basis being experienced in some regions.
Read Ragland’s full testimony here.
Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute, shed some light on the U.S. fertilizer industry:
- Nitrogen fertilizers are manufactured products, reliant on natural gas as the primary feedstock and are produced in more than 60 countries by more than 100 producers.
- The United States is the fourth largest nitrogen producing nation.
- The United States is also a large producer of phosphate, which is mined from geologic deposits. There are 30 countries that produce phosphate fertilizers (MAP, DAP, TSP), but the top five countries account for over 80% of production. The top phosphate producing countries are China (43%), Morocco (13%), Russia (9%), Saudi Arabia (8%), and the United States (8%). While the United States has some domestic production of potash, it imported most of its domestic potash supply in 2024, as it has for decades.
- Only 15 countries produce potash, which is mined from geologic deposits, but Canada (33%), Russia (19%) and Belarus (15%) are the dominant producers. Unlike the nitrogen and processed phosphate markets, the top exporting nations closely follow the shares of global production.
- Read the testimony here.
John Latham, president of Latham Quality, Inc., said consolidation in the seed corn industry means independent seed companies like Latham Seeds struggle to compete due to increased costs and limited access to genetic material.
“From 2021 to 2025, our technology royalties have risen by 40% to 80% even on off-patent technologies. Remember, when these trait royalties rise, costs to farmers rise too – not just for the new products – but also for the unsold seed from prior years. So, a product produced in 2021 (even with 15-year-old genetics and a 20-year-old trait patent) is increasing in price over $50 per unit. Farmers are often not getting innovation or new value for their money. Independent companies that produced the seed are forced to sell it to farmers at much higher prices than when it was first produced. It’s like trying to sell an iPhone 8 for the same price as a new iPhone 17.”
Read Latham’s full testimony here.
Read additional testimonies and watch the full Senate Judiciary committee hearing here.
Written by Bethany Baratta
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