Farmers are choosing to sit out the season because it’s become just too expensive

Some farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin are choosing not to plant this season, not because the spring weather is working against them, but because the math is.

In a report from News 8 Now, John Lauritsen said the ripple effects from the war with Iran are being felt in farm fields, where diesel prices have climbed sharply and fertilizer costs remain high. For farmers already dealing with trade wars, tariffs, and unstable markets, the rising price of getting a crop in the ground has pushed some to a difficult decision: lease out the land, leave fields idle, or simply sit out the season.

Farm diesel prices have gone up 46% since the war started, Lauritsen reported, adding another major cost at the worst possible time.

Planting season is usually a moment of hope. This year, for some, it looks more like a gamble.

Good Weather, Bad Economics

Lauritsen met Ryan Mackenthun in McLeod County, Minnesota, where field conditions were actually strong for spring planting.

“It’s very dry for April 20. We have great field conditions, dry soil, the frost is out of the ground,” Mackenthun said.

For Mackenthun, that early start matters. Getting corn planted under good conditions can make a real difference later in the year, especially when farmers are chasing stronger yields and trying to protect every dollar they have already invested.

On the day Lauritsen visited, Mackenthun was planting corn despite the challenges hanging over the season. Those challenges included high fertilizer prices, higher fuel costs, tariffs, and trade uncertainty.

“As a farmer, I’m optimistic that eventually we’re going to have a market that will support farming,” Mackenthun said.

That optimism is important because farming has always required a certain amount of faith. Farmers plant before they know what the weather will do, what prices will be months later, or whether global events will change the market overnight.

But optimism does not pay the fuel bill.

Some Farmers Are Leasing Instead Of Planting

Steve Zenk, a Minnesota Department of Agriculture farm advocate, told Lauritsen that he shares Mackenthun’s optimism, but he is also seeing more farmers make a different choice this year.

With markets so volatile, Zenk said more farmers are leasing out their land instead of farming it themselves.

“The neighbor will pay me $300 an acre and I can just take the year off,” Zenk said. “I mean yeah, it’s a very particular set of criteria for you to be able to do that.”

That option is not available to everyone. Zenk said it mainly makes sense for older farmers who have owned their land for decades and no longer have the same debt pressures as younger operators.

For them, leasing land may be less stressful than spending hundreds of dollars per acre to plant a crop that might lose money.

That is a strange but telling sign of where farming is right now. In a normal year, a farmer with good land and good spring conditions would want to plant. But when the expected return is lower than the cost, doing nothing may look safer than doing the work.

The Numbers Do Not Work For Everyone

Zenk works with farm finances on a regular basis, and he told Lauritsen the problem comes down to simple arithmetic.

Right now, Zenk said some farmers may spend up to $900 to plant an acre of corn, only to get about $800 back. That would mean a loss before the season is even finished.

“I’m happy if I can get them to break even,” Zenk said. “There’s just not a lot of profitability in most farming operations right now.”

That quote says a lot. Breaking even is not exactly a dream, but for many farmers this season, it may count as a win.

The public often hears about food prices from the grocery store side, where shoppers feel the pain at the checkout line. But there is another side to the same pressure. Farmers also face higher costs, and they do not always have the power to pass those costs along in a way that protects them.

They buy fuel at today’s price. They buy fertilizer at today’s price. They plant with today’s costs. But the market may not reward them when harvest comes.

That is a difficult way to run a business, and it is even harder when the business depends on weather, global markets, politics, and thin margins.

Empty Fields And Empty Feedlots

Lauritsen reported that the trend is not limited to crop farming.

Zenk said he is also seeing similar decisions in cattle, where high prices have some farmers choosing not to buy cattle and leaving their feedlots empty for now.

That kind of decision may seem surprising when cattle prices are high, but it shows the same issue. If the cost to buy in is too steep, and the risk feels too great, some farmers would rather wait than take on losses they may not recover from.

It is a reminder that “high prices” do not always mean farmers are making money. Sometimes high prices just mean everything in the chain has become more expensive.

The same thing is happening in crop fields. A strong harvest does not guarantee a strong year if the inputs cost too much and the market does not pay enough.

A Stressful Season For Farm Families

Mackenthun told Lauritsen that farming is under pressure, but he still believes better markets will eventually return.

“It’s a very high stress time,” Mackenthun said.

That stress is not only financial. It is personal.

Farmers often work land tied to family history, local identity, and years of effort. Choosing not to plant can feel like more than a business move. It can feel like stepping away from a way of life, even if only for a season.

There is also the emotional weight of making a decision before the outcome is known. If a farmer plants and loses money, the damage is obvious. If he sits out and prices improve later, he may wonder if he made the wrong call.

That uncertainty is part of farming, but this year the pressure appears sharper because so many expenses are rising at once.

Waiting For Things To Get Better

Zenk told Lauritsen that farmers have been through hard times before and will get through this one too.

“We will get better at this and we’ll get through this, and we have many times before, and then things will get better again,” Zenk said.

That is the hopeful side of the report. Agriculture has survived bad markets, droughts, floods, trade fights, disease outbreaks, and global shocks before.

But hope does not remove the short-term problem.

For some farmers, this season may come down to whether planting makes any financial sense at all. If it costs $900 to put in an acre of corn and the expected return is $800, sitting out is not laziness. It is survival.

That may be the most important point in Lauritsen’s report. Farmers are not walking away because the fields are poor or because they do not want to work. In some places, the fields are ready.

The problem is that the cost of farming has become so high that doing the work may mean losing money.

And when that happens, even the best planting weather cannot fix the numbers.