By Shelby Bloomer
For corn farmers across Kentucky, April means it’s time to till fields and plant acre after acre of the row crop.
The Hunt family has farmed the fields of Christian County for decades. This year, though, fourth-generation farmer Brandon Hunt said the growing season has come with an undercurrent of stress, with small agricultural producers across the U.S. under financial strain stemming from the country’s war with Iran.
Tariffs and inflated input costs
In between tilling and fertilizing the family land from the cab of his red tractor, Hunt said he expects to see negative returns on his harvest this year. He said input costs were on the rise before the conflict began and that farmers’ margins were already hurting because of tariffs on fertilizer and metals – and inflated prices for things like seed and chemicals.
“This is really bad timing for the U.S. farmer. We're entering our fourth year of negative returns on profitability at the farm level,” Hunt said. “Fertilizer prices don't ever come down as fast as they go up, and we were already dealing with record costs per acre before the conflict in the Middle East.”
In 2025, President Donald Trump established a 50% tariff on aluminum and steel, both metals frequently used to manufacture tools and machinery for farming. On top of equipment being more expensive, many farmers have paid higher fertilizer prices since 2021 because of a specific kind of tariff – known as countervailing duties – on imported phosphate fertilizers.
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