Posted on 04/13/2026 5:30:12 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — Strong winds whipped around Doug Bartek, a fifth-generation farmer, as he headed into a grain bin to shovel soybeans onto a conveyor chute. The 60-year-old was anxious at the onset of the spring planting season, rattling off the long list of issues affecting his family’s livelihood at their 2,000-acre farm near Wahoo, Nebraska.
The high cost of fuel, equipment, and fertilizer — compounded by the Iran war — and also tariffs, perceived “price gouging” by suppliers, and low soybean prices driven by a global supply glut. All of it weighs on Bartek, who is chairman of the Nebraska Soybean Association.
“Our biggest struggles are our inputs, be it fertilizer, seed, chemical, parts,” Bartek said. “There has been so much drastic markup in all of these. And I just kind of feel like the farmer’s kind of painted in the corner.”
Bartek’s concerns are shared by many Midwest soybean producers. Costs, such as equipment, have crept up over time while soybean prices have stayed low. Tariffs levied by the Trump administration last year and the resulting monthslong trade war with China only made things worse, they say. Then the Iran war bottled up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, restricting global fertilizer supplies and sending fertilizer prices sky high. A ceasefire deal announced April 7 raised hope that bottlenecks in the strait would abate, but the future of the agreement was uncertain.
“A lot of producers are pretty nervous going into this year,” said Justin Sherlock, a soybean farmer and president of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association. “It looks like we’re going to have another year of negative returns.”
Years of rising costs, low soybean prices
Soybeans, which are used for livestock feed, food and biofuels, are among the top U.S...
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
“That’s using the ‘ol bean”
Maybe pig/chicken excrement could be roasted and then used as fertilizer.
Honey wagons do just that, on crops.
That is, they spray their excrement on fields as fertilizer.
The smell is something!
“as he headed into a grain bin to shovel soybeans onto a conveyor chute.”
A “conveyor chute”, what’s that? And shoveling the soy beans? A conveyor belt may be used in large grain terminals in indoor applications where the wind would not blow the grain off.
We live in an area that produces lots of grain. Today the only thing a farmer will shovel is spillage. Most grain bins feed augers (the mechanical devices that move grain) using gravity. Those older bins with flat floors the auger is placed in the bin door and may require considerable shoveling but a conveyor belt would not be used. Vacuum systems are also used that require practically no shoveling.
A conveyor chute is a term made up by the journalist which suggest the whole article is made up. After all, this AP = Always Propaganda.
Wait until the effects of Iran war hits the fertilizer markets. Nitrogen and phosphate prices will go through the roof.
Tariffs have NOTHING to do with this.
Gagline: axis of fear bump
A conveyor chute is a term made up by the journalist which suggest the whole article is made up. After all, this AP = Always Propaganda.
AP is trash. Re source any “news” story they run
Oil at 101. The Markets must think that the blockade is going to work.
It’s the case of a journalist concocting a story and too lazy to do any research. All he had to do was call anyone in the ag business to get the correct technical terms.
The sad part is these clowns create new terms read by many and those readers pick them up and reuse them without knowing they are improper. Some of my pet peeves are:
Calling an oxygen/acetylene torch a “blow torch”, when in fact a blow torch is fired by gasoline.
Using the term box cutter when they really mean a razor knife.
Calling a truck configured as a van a box truck.
Calling a concrete block a cinder block. My dad had a building made 100% out of cinder blocks. They were very light weight and very porous. Instead of sand and rock as the aggregate, coal cinders/coal ash and fly ash is used.
Sorry for the rant, but journalistic stupidly pisses me off about as much as their lying does.
China Stopped Buying U.S. Soybeans. The Real Problem Started Decades Ago.
October 8, 2025
With a strategic reserve of 40 million tons, China now holds major power over global soybean prices. That leaves U.S. farmers sitting on crops they can’t sell and facing prices below the cost of production.
https://farmaction.us/china-stopped-buying-u-s-soybeans-the-real-problem-started-decades-ago/
I wonder if China is storing long term?
Soybeans should be stored at 13% moisture or less over winter (for up to six months), or 12% or less over one planting season (approximately a year). For longer-term storage, aim for moisture levels of 11% or less
Four Keys to Proper Soybean Storage
https://www.andersonintl.com/four-keys-to-proper-soybean-storage/
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