By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s capital may be hundreds of miles from the shores of the Red River and the fields Texas farmers call home, but that has not stopped producers in the Lone Star State from having a voice in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
A group of Texas farmers and ranchers sat down with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins April 9 in Austin to discuss some of the issues facing agriculture, including how higher fuel and fertilizer prices are taking a toll on farmers while commodity prices remain low. The roundtable was coordinated and organized by Texas Farm Bureau and brought in other key Texas agricultural organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had representatives from all over the state, from Corpus Christi to the Panhandle to Northeast Texas, Central Texas to the Hill Country. We had good representation across the state of row crop farmers and small grain farmers and cattle ranchers,\u201d Michael Moon, Texas Farm Bureau\u00a0District 8 state\u00a0director, told the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. \u201cShe wanted to know a little bit about everything that\u2019s affecting us now, from fuel to fertilizer to anything else that the cost has gone up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuel and fertilizer prices rose recently as a result of the war in the Middle East. Iran has cut off access to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint in the region, restricting the movement of oil and fertilizer from countries in the Persian Gulf, west of the strait.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our tanks topped off in the U.S., and as soon as the war started, the price started going up,\u201d Moon said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they want to do that to us when we\u2019re hurting already as farmers and ranchers. To me, that\u2019s gouging really. I understand they have to replace it at some point in time, but when you have to replace a truckload of fuel, 7,500 gallons at $6 a gallon, that hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the conflict, fertilizer prices were already trending higher due to China restricting exports to ensure its own domestic availability, European producers cutting output due to the loss of a cheaper Russian gas supply and countervailing duties placed on imports of phosphate fertilizer imports from Russia and Morocco.<\/p>\n
The restricted\u00a0access to the Strait of Hormuz then sent those prices even higher.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mostly talked about the war and its effect. Everyone at the table, we all thought the same thing. We get less than 1% of our fuel from over in that part of the world, and we get very little of our fertilizer from over there. So,\u00a0how could that affect us so bad here?\u201d Moon said. \u201cIt\u2019s speculation in the markets. That\u2019s what\u2019s driving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moon said while prices for inputs, like fertilizer and fuel, have gone up, the prices farmers receive for their crops have\u00a0stayed flat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t hardly sell any corn right now. There\u2019s no buyers. They definitely do not want last year\u2019s corn. This year\u2019s corn, there\u2019s no contracts on it,\u201d Moon said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t gone up any at all to offset anything. The only thing that halfway offsets our cost is if you run cattle, cattle are bringing record prices, but that\u2019s offsetting our little losses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rising cost of fertilizer isn\u2019t just hitting corn, sorghum and cotton farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdd in anybody that\u2019s a hay producer. We just fertilized hay last week because we had rain chances that came in,\u00a0and our fertilizer was up 25% just on our grass patches that we were fertilizing,\u201d Paul Minzenmayer, TFB\u00a0District 7 state\u00a0director, told the TFB Radio Network. \u201cI told her we\u2019re just a few months away from purchasing our fertilizer for our next wheat crop that we\u2019ll be putting in in the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minzenmayer\u00a0noted\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0looking at a 40% increase in fertilizer costs for the upcoming wheat crop that will be planted in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks very grim,\u201d Minzenmayer said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t put out fertilizer, then yields are down, but we have to have a product to sell in order to continue farming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmers aren\u2019t the only ones being impacted by the higher prices. Their communities are feeling the pinch,\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you live out in rural America, freight is in so much of every expense. It\u2019s in the cost of food and all the products. It costs more for a restaurant and then their customers have less money to spend because it costs\u00a0twice as much to fill up your vehicle this week as it did a month ago. So,\u00a0those dollars are being limited and tougher to spend,\u201d Minzenmayer said.<\/p>\n
Moon and Minzenmayer said the secretary took many notes during the roundtable about the farmers\u2019 concerns and potential actions the administration may take to alleviate some of the pressure on farmers.<\/p>\n
For example, TFB suggested the administration use presidential power to temporarily suspend the countervailing duties on imports of fertilizer to moderate price increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey foresee that maybe Trump can, since we\u2019re at war, temporarily restrain those,\u201d Minzenmayer said.<\/p>\n
TFB also suggested the administration do what it can to ensure port, rail and barge capacity is available to deliver fertilizer imports on time to the farmers who need it and leverage all federal tools available to ensure vessels are insured throughout their passage to America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very hopeful. She seemed to really be respectful of our time and respectful of our thoughts. She took lots of notes, which makes you feel like you\u2019re being heard,\u201d Minzenmayer said. \u201cShe had staff there that was really listening and kept talking about conversations she would be having with Trump to try to help support us and support the ag industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group also discussed the $11 billion in Farmer Bridge Assistance Program payments the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u00a0(USDA)\u00a0is distributing now to help farmers get through to the time when updated farm bill reference prices go into effect.<\/p>\n
Minzenmayer said some farmers noted their bridge payments did not help. Instead,\u00a0they went directly to pay the increased costs for inputs.<\/p>\n
He said the\u00a0group\u00a0did discuss the potential for any additional economic assistance through USDA due to higher input costs as a result of the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was somewhat discussed, but more roundabout of if something was done, how can it be done to where it was actually kept by the farmer and not inflated into the prices, whether it be seed, fertilizer, chemicals, John Deere or Case, farm equipment, because it seems like any payments they make to the farmers immediately just ship to the next person down the line,\u201d Minzenmayer said.<\/p>\n
The secretary also discussed beef prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was even a little talk about the president wanting to try to do something with the cattle prices to bring those down,\u201d Moon said. \u201cIt sounds good on paper, but when you\u2019re in the industry that we\u2019re in, it\u2019s going to hurt. We\u2019ve struggled through many, many years of low cattle prices. Now,\u00a0we finally start making a little money on cattle, and they want to take that away from us. That doesn\u2019t work either.\u201d<\/p>\n
The secretary noted she has talked to the president and said beef prices are the bright spot on the balance sheet and where they need to be right now, Minzenmayer said.<\/p>\n
Both Moon and Minzenmayer said they stepped away from the roundtable feeling like they had been heard by the secretary and her staff and hopeful that action could be taken to support U.S. agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to be able to have that conversation so close to home with somebody from Washington,\u00a0D.C.,\u00a0out here to listen to us and really feel like they care about us,\u201d Minzenmayer said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have that same response, it didn\u2019t feel like, from\u00a0the\u00a0previous administration. I\u2019m really hopeful that some changes can be made to make it work better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jessica DomelMultimedia Reporter The nation\u2019s capital may be hundreds of miles from the shores of the Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[93157,14265,27,29,28,93158,5876],"class_list":["post-243737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-fertilizer","tag-fuel","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-secretary-of-agriculture-brooke-rollins","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}