Trade, Ag's Lifeblood

I love to talk about agriculture. OK, so I just love to talk in general but especially when it comes to agriculture. I don’t know that I have any special talent and I am certainly not blessed with good looks. I simply don’t turn down the chance to talk to anyone, consumer or reporter about what I do for a living or how passionate I am about my land, animals and crops.

The past couple of weeks I have had the unique opportunity to talk to a couple of reporters from very different publications about agriculture. The topic both reporters wanted to talk about was the tariffs placed on steel and aluminum by the President. I agreed to speak to both reporters but the message I had for them about the tariffs was not the message they expected.

When I initially talked to both reporters they first wanted to know how the tariffs affected the price of steel and aluminum. More specifically they wanted to know how the increased cost of metal was going to affect my operation and my bottom line. That caught me off guard, the cost of inputs made from metal had not even appeared on my radar, I was seeing much bigger problems.

I explained that we had not started planting or haying and really had not purchased any replacement parts, so I did not know how that would be impacted. I also explained that most machinery and other large purchases were usually made in the last couple months of the year, so it would be a few months before I started worrying about if the price of equipment had been affected.

I explained to both reporters that my biggest heartburn with the tariffs were what they would do to commodity prices. I explained that a large portion of what I produce is exported and how the markets were dependent on foreign trade. The first reporter was very interested in this and that led to a tour of my farm and a discussion of how and why we raised the crops we do. We drove through the new born calves and I explained how new, developing markets in Asia would be harmed by the retaliation drawn by the tariffs.

I am not sure if she had ever realized that a large portion of the food we grow in the United States is bound for other countries. I suspect the average consumer thinks that we grow our own and it all stays close to home. We discussed how important trade was on the ag economy and how, often, we are the very first targets when it comes to a trade war. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think anyone outside of the steel and aluminum industries are very excited about these actions. Our whole world and all our industries are interconnected and dependent on trade, it just seems like ag is always the lead target.

The second reporter seemed to have his article pretty much done and he politely listened to my explanation of why the market impact on crop and livestock prices was much more of an immediate concern. He told me he had spoken with another producer from the Corn Belt who had seen a fifteen percent increase in the cost of putting new grain bins up. I told the reporter that if commodity prices didn’t improve and especially if they declined farther that I would not be spending any money on anything new, steel or not.

I know there are many out there who would like to see us shut our borders and just take care of ourselves. I guess I can understand that sentiment, but it just simply will not work, like it or not we are a global society and there is no turning back now. Every industry we have, including agriculture is highly dependent on trade. I can also understand the idea of protecting our homegrown industry and I do not understand steel and aluminum well enough to have an opinion on their trade status. I just know that the tariffs impose have had an immediate and harsh effect on commodity prices that were already extremely low. I also know that our farm and ranch economy will not take much more stress.

While I applaud the current Administration on many of the changes they have made during their time in office I do think those of us in agriculture should voice our displeasure and apprehension about their trade policy. We need to make sure our ag organizations are addressing the issues and talking to the proper officials, we need to make our voices heard.

We also need to contact anyone we can individually, our elected officials, media outlets anyone who might be able to help spread the message. The bottom line is that we in agriculture know the value of trade and we know we cannot have our markets disrupted. Who knows, it might even help to tweet something, we all know the President watches that.