00:00Joining us now is John Bartman, fifth generation farmer. He farms corn and soybean in Illinois.
00:04Great to see you, John. And I want to start with fertilizer.
00:07Chrystia Freeland there saying it's about 25 percent of the cost for farmers.
00:10Walk us through how much in broad strokes you're paying for fertilizer each year
00:15and what's changed, if anything, over the course of the last four or five weeks.
00:19Well, David, first of all, I just want everybody to understand that standing behind me,
00:23I have two fertilizer tanks and those fertilizer tanks hold liquid urea,
00:28which is 32 percent the industry standard.
00:31And last year, by the way, this is enough to plant 100 acres of corn.
00:37And last year, that cost me $11,000 to fill those tanks.
00:43Two weeks ago, it was $17,000.
00:46And now today, it's close to $21,000 and climbing.
00:50Do you have what you need to start the season?
00:52I know it's not just how much it's costing, but whether or not it's going to get to you guys.
00:58And that is an excellent point, and that is the $64,000 question.
01:03I know a lot of people have prepaid for their fertilizer, but are you going to get it?
01:09And the analogy I've been telling people, it was very similar to if your kid had a video game
01:13that they really wanted for Christmas and you ordered it in October and COVID happened.
01:19Were you going to get that game or not in time?
01:21Same thing to what we're dealing with right now with fertilizer.
01:24You bring up COVID, and I think of all the supply chain disruptions that happened then.
01:28Was it anything analogous to what we're seeing now?
01:31Was it hard to get that urea fertilizer then, or is this something that's novel,
01:35something you haven't experienced before as a farmer?
01:37It's getting worse.
01:39And I think what people also need to understand is that at least 20% of the demand for fertilizer
01:45now
01:45is due to Trump's first trade war because during that time period, Brazil massively increased their acreage.
01:53They went from 80 million acres to up to 120 million acres of soybeans,
01:58and now they're planting over 50 million acres of corn.
02:02They were never in that category before, and not to mention their soil isn't as fertile as ours here in
02:08the Midwest,
02:08so they need more fertilizer, and not to mention many areas of Brazil, they have year-round growing seasons.
02:14So that fertilizer is going nonstop, and we're in a world market right now, and we need to be aware
02:20of that.
02:20And we as farmers are in the collateral damage here in Illinois and the rest of the United States.
02:25We have some sound from the president from last night on the farm bill I want you to take a
02:30listen to.
02:31Thanks to our trade deals, you're now sending over $40 billion in American soybeans to China.
02:37I want to thank President Xi of China because we had a deal at 20, and I said,
02:42could you do me a favor?
02:44It's a big place.
02:46Could you double it?
02:48And he said, what are you talking about?
02:50I said, could you make it 40 instead of 20?
02:54And he overwrote all of his people.
02:56He said, all right, I'll do it.
02:57And you got 40 instead of 20.
02:59So now you go out and buy bigger tractors, what can I tell you?
03:03I'm also asking Congress to quickly pass the new farm bill.
03:07And today I'm promising to request additional farm relief for our great patriots and the next funding bill.
03:13So we have you taken care of in both instances, and we're pushing very hard for the new farm bill.
03:19Is there anything in that farm bill that you think is going to help?
03:23Will it help, and do you think it'll pass?
03:27Well, he also said yesterday, too, that I gave you $12 billion, and you farmers are making so much money
03:35right now.
03:36Yeah, how's that going?
03:38You know, so, and not to mention that we're still waiting for the supposedly 8 million metric tons that China
03:45was going to buy again this month, too.
03:50Who knows what the guy is going to say next?
03:52And it's just very, very unfortunate, the situation that we're in.
03:56And we're in another man-made crisis caused by Donald Trump right now.
04:00And it's just frustrating.
04:02We need a farm bill.
04:04I think the Republicans are very nervous about getting a farm bill passed.
04:09They want to get it passed because they don't want to open up the Pandora's box of dealing with the
04:14SNAP program again, which they ripped out through the big, beautiful bill.
04:18And there are other wonderful conservation programs that aren't funded like they used to be.
04:23I'd much rather be talking with you guys today about carbon sequestration and that new market, which we should be
04:29talking about, that has really been put on the back shelf thanks to the Trump administration right now.
04:33So I'm very bearish, unfortunately, and that's kind of why I'm actually growing more corn this year because I knew
04:41I at least have a market for it.
04:43Come back any time, John.
04:44We'll talk about sequestration of carbon if you want to.
04:46But let me ask you quickly.
04:47We've got about a minute left, and I don't know if viewers saw it, but the president was speaking in
04:50front of this gilded tractor yesterday at the White House, gold tractor.
04:54And he said he's going to go to John Deere and internationally to other companies and say make less expensive
04:58farm equipment.
04:59And putting that aside, how do you think about making big capital investments like that at this moment?
05:04Is it something you can even weigh at this point in time because of all the uncertainty?
05:08His quote-unquote bailout program gave farmers for soybeans $30 an acre.
05:15John Deere's new X9 combine is officially the first implement that's over a million dollars.
05:21So according to the University of Illinois, last year every farmer lost $100 an acre.
05:25This year, according to the American Farm Bureau, every single commodity that we grow is unprofitable.
05:30And there's a reason why last year all the farm equipment that was sold is half of what it was
05:35during Biden's last year in his administration.
05:39John, before we let you go quickly, if there's one thing that this government could do for farmers across America,
05:44what would that be?
05:45Increase our demand.
05:47We have to increase the demand for our products.
05:50And we need stability.
05:51And right now we're losing out to South America with the South American Free Trade Agreement with Europe.
05:59And Canada right now is joining with the South American Free Trade Agreement.
06:03It's absolutely crazy.
06:04We are in a world economy and we've been exporting food since the colonial days.
06:09And that's what we do in this country.
06:10We feed people.
06:11And this administration needs to understand that.
06:13We're in a world economy and we're in a world economy and we're in a world economy.
06:14We're in a world economy.
Comments