Patience Is Waning For Iowa Farmers Impacted By Trade War

Sep 19, 2019

China will exclude U.S. soybeans and pork from its latest round of tariffs, yet many Iowa farmers are concerned as the trade dispute continues to impact their bottom lines.

David Differding and his wife Susan own Timeless Prairie Orchard, a small apple farm in Winthrop, Iowa. He says his business has lost tens of thousands of dollars as rising tariffs lead large-scale apple producers in Washington to flood the market with the lower priced produce they're unable to export.

Differding says farmers' patience is running out, which may show up in political opinion, and possibly even upcoming elections.

"This is business, and they have to realize that what they're doing to businesses across the United States and not just in Iowa is hurting everybody," Differding says. "And the markets that they've worked years to gain are not going to come back right away. And that's going to be the long term effect of what's happening."

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.