Getting what they voted for; farm bankruptcies up 46%

I am just not buying it.  If these farms were healthy in Jan when Trump took office It would take a minimum 9 months to see any results of his policies.  Fuel prices for example were much cheaper in 25 which are one of the biggest farm expenses.  Now if these farms are still going under in 2026 in record numbers with the big rise in cost I will  give trump credit at that time

Tariffs began on day one. China quit buying our soy beans as a result. Inputs have gone up especially diesel and fertilizer while the markets to sell are still depressed. But yeah believe what your gut tells you.  I trust Farm Bureau got it right rather than relying on my gut to make sense of it. 

Brent, I don't know why you wear the Trump Apologist hat (a red baseball cap), but you must know that farmers depend on contracts and map out their expenses from the onset of the growing season. The Fucking Turd killed trade (so markets went poof) and skyrocketed expenses (knocking all calculations, such as short-term loans and credit lines, into a cocked hat), so farmers who were looking at profit, or at least survival, for 2025 were suddenly faced with the prospect of either losing money or ceasing operations altogether.

And all this happened well before crops were planted and contracts with shippers and wholesalers were negotiated. The Fucking Turd had already crapped on American farmers by spring 2025. You must also be aware that the ICE Gestapo had started its purges and that there was a looming labor shortage--once again, well evident by early 2025. (Turned out that there was a 25% drop in seasonal labor in OR and WA and as a result, many crops simply rotted.)

There were also the DOGE purges implemented by Elon and his teenage assistant, "Big Balls." That hit the Department of Agriculture particularly hard, with the result that various forms of applications, such as Farm Aid and subsidies, weren't processed in time. A LOT of farmers--tens of thousands of them--who were already on the brink wound up having their lifelines cut--and had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. Again, this was early 2025.

So your statement that it would have taken nine months to fuck over America's farmers is simply incorrect. The repercussions came much more quickly. But yeah, as your orange hero stated, prices went downward from Day One. Zero inflation! Rose petals! Bunnies!

God, to think that so many people voted for this shit!

So I have to ask, which farmers are going under ?  Apple farmers, carrot farmers , dairy farmers or what ?  We all know  soybean farmers have other options such as wheat, corn, milo, alfafa, and so on and they are not going under.  So who exactly is failing in a span of a few months ?  Were they start up farms where grant money ran out ?  That would make sense i, but until there is some breakdown of  this general farms failing, I am calling BS

I'm kind of amazed that you would ask these kind of questions.

A soybean farmer may or may not have other options. In the short term, if he finds that he won't be able to sell his crop this year, he can't necessarily just pivot to another crop. His farm may not be equipped to grow whatever else it is. He may have already bought the appropriate seed, fertilizer, equipment, etc. etc. to grow soybeans. And the most impactful problem...there may not be a market for those other crops you mention. Maybe that's why he was growing soybeans in the first place? Anyway, transitioning to another crop right at the beginning of the growing season is expensive and difficult at best, and impossible at worst. So...lotsa bankruptcies.

You know about the overall failures. Why it it "BS" if you don't receive a "breakdown"?? Obviously, there were failures of many different kinds of farms. and I assume you can find out the precise details for yourself if you really want to. It looks like you're trying to dismiss and belittle the issue by saying, "Oh, well, yeah, they were all gummint grant farms anyway, hyuk hyuk."

Have you ever been in business for yourself? If you had, you would know that even a minor disruption in the market you serve (with whatever products or services you provide) can be the kiss of death. Cut off or weaken cash flow for even a couple of months, and you might be on life support. Can't sell your products? Game over. Most farms are small businesses and the fragility thereof is precisely why there are such things as farm subsidies. But as not many people know, the Big Pig Bill drastically cut those subsidies, so that's one more Trump effect that was already in force.

Do yourself a favor. Look up what farm products we export (or used to export) to Canada. Then check on bankruptcies in that particular part of the farm sector. I could guide you as to which crops we send (or sent) north, and how Turdiffs killed those markets, but you should do your own research. If a farmer grows a crop/product that he sells to Canada, chances are, he can't find a market here for it. So slap a 20% surcharge on his products and he may not be able to sell them anywhere. And yes, Brent, that can be business-fatal in a matter of a few months,

Your first response in this thread stated, "Mark, I did not read the link....."  Mmmm, maybe that would be the first place to start if you have the amount of interest in this that you seem to have.

The Price of soybeans is within pennies of what it was 2 years ago.  So soybean prices are not the cause of failing farms in 2025.  I do not go to the links David posts either.  If there is truely good information, then please share.  If it is just another polital hit piece, then that is fine too.  In our area this does not seam to be the case.  Also you use the exact same equipment to plant soybeans, on the same kind of ground, as you do other crops.  And good farmers rotate crops so they don't grow the same things every year anyway.  Rotating crops brings higher yeild and fewer pests.

The price may be the same, but the demand for US soybeans is waaaaaay down. And whatever price is prevaling doesn't mean shit if you can't sell your goods. THAT was one reason why so many farms failed in 2025--they were exporters. And when Trump shat on the world--no more exports.

The first quarter of the year is FAR too late to decide to plant an entirely new crop and uproot and throw away all your existing stuff. That's true for soybeans or kumquats or jalapenos.

It's really quite simple, Brent. We handily meet our own food consumption and then some. In fact, we USED to export half of the food we produced. So many, many farmers were growing food for export. And when the Turdiffs kicked in, there was no reason to grow that "extra" food if we weren't going to be able to sell it, because of a) reciprocal tariffs destroying our competitive advantage; b) other nations shunning our products for political reasons.

I strongly suspect that whatever we might "share," you'll call it a "political hit piece" if it contains criticism of your Dear Noble Leader Trump. I get that you're unfailingly loyal to him, for whatever perverse reason. But to say that his policies and actions were anything less than extremely harmful to farmers in 2025 is to dwell in Fantasy Funhouse Land.

Face it, Brent, when you voted for him, you helped to put your local farmers out of business.

It comes from the Farm Bureau.

https://www.fb.org/market-intel/farm-bankruptcies-continued-to-climb-in-2025

From their website:

"Farm Bureau is the leading voice of farmers in Washington, DC, and our work goes well beyond policy issues. We’re committed to engaging and developing the next generation of farm leaders, encouraging rural entrepreneurs, and giving back to our communities.

- AFBF President Zippy Duvall"

Brent thinks that anything he disagrees with is a hit piece.