IOWA (KMTV) – Dave Mulhbauer, a fifth-generation farmer in Iowa, says equipment, fertilizer and other essential farming supplies have increased, making it increasingly difficult to generate a profit.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Iowa farmers are grappling with shrinking profit margins as rising costs and new international trade policies create uncertainty in the agricultural sector.
Dave Mulhbauer, a fifth-generation farmer in Iowa, says equipment, fertilizer and other essential farming supplies have increased due to tariffs, creating razor-thin margins and making it increasingly difficult to generate a profit.
"It definitely makes you scratch your head and really put your pencil to paper to figure out how things are going to work out. But its bigger than the farming community itself, it affects our local rural communities, the money that generated here through the farm economy has a spin off on many other things," Mulhbauer said.
The lack of markets to sell soybeans has already impacted all farmers, according to Mulhbauer. He says the new plan to import beef from Argentina feels like a gut punch that will push farmers out of their jobs instead of addressing the issues producers are facing.
"There's a lot of pride in what we do and there's a lot of pride in generational farms, if we start to lose that, it's a scary scary thought," Mulhbauer said.
Mulhbauer also says he wants to see country of origin labeling be addressed asl well.
