I am a fourth-generation corn farmer from Waverly, Iowa. Like thousands of farmers across our state, I spend my days thinking about weather, yields, markets and how to leave something behind for the next generation.
Lately, one concern towers above the rest: fertilizer.
The cost of fertilizer is crushing Iowa farmers, and too few people are talking about why.
Every corn grower depends on fertilizer to produce a crop. Phosphorus, potash, and nitrogen are not optional inputs, and they are not interchangeable. Without them, there is no harvest.
But over the last two decades, the companies producing these inputs have consolidated into a handful of dominant players.
Today, just four major companies control most of the market across the three major fertilizer categories. That concentration matters because when farmers lose options, prices stop behaving like a competitive market.
The result is something Iowa farmers feel every season.
Five years ago, it took about 136 bushels of corn to buy a unit of monoammonium phosphate, a common fertilizer. Today, it takes roughly 230 bushels.
Think about that for a minute.
Farmers sell corn into a global market. We do not set prices. When grain prices rise, fertilizer costs seem to rise right behind them. When grain prices fall, fertilizer rarely follows. The margin disappears.
That means less money to reinvest, less cushion for bad years and fewer opportunities for young farmers trying to stay in the business.
Policy decisions have made this harder. Countervailing duties on some fertilizer imports have reduced competition and increased costs for producers. Researchers estimate those policies increased phosphorus fertilizer costs for U.S. growers by billions of dollars over recent growing seasons.
At the same time, emergency assistance payments are not solving the underlying problem.
Farmers appreciate support when times are difficult. But aid checks come and go. If market concentration remains untouched, those dollars eventually flow through the system and farmers end up facing the same pressures again next season.
Competition problems cannot be solved with cash.
What Iowa farmers need is more competition, stronger enforcement of antitrust laws and policies that make markets work again.
That means supporting efforts like Sen. Chuck Grassley’s fertilizer research proposals, giving the FTC and DOJ the tools to examine concentrated agricultural markets, and making sure regulators understand that input costs are not just a farm issue. They are a food issue.
Because what happens on Iowa farms does not stay on Iowa farms.
When fertilizer costs rise, farm margins shrink. When farm margins shrink, production suffers. And eventually consumers pay more too.
Family farm bankruptcies increased sharply last year, and the average American farmer is approaching 60 years old. If the economics stop working, the next generation will simply choose not to come back.
Iowa farmers are not asking for special treatment.
We are asking for a fair market, real competition, and the chance to succeed on the merits.
That is how Iowa agriculture became the strongest in the world. It is how we keep it that way.
Mark Mueller is a fourth-generation farmer from Bremer County producing no-till corn, soybeans, alfalfa, specialty beans, forage rye and corn for silage. He serves as the Iowa Corn Growers Association president and on the Research & Business Development Committee.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Why Iowa farmers need competition, not another bailout | Opinion
Reporting by Mark Mueller, Guest columnist / Des Moines Register
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By Mark Mueller, Guest columnist | USA TODAY Network
