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Farmer concerns heading into the planting season

Continued supply chain issues, high input costs, and access to machinery parts are top of mind for many Midwestern farmers heading into the planting season.

John Yeley farms near Marshall, Illinois, and says he plans to make some adjustments to fertilizer applications.

“I normally try to build (fertilizer) every year,” he says. “With the fertilizer prices where they are, I just did maintenance. So, I did cut back down a bit on that.”

He says some input and machinery prices are a concern.

“I’m not cutting back on seed and chemicals,” he says. “There are probably some machinery purchases I would have made if I could find it. It is a little concerning.”

Mark Seib farms in Poseyville, Indiana, and says having inputs on hand is a top priority.

“We’ve already purchased a lot of our inputs. In the last couple of years with COVID-19, we want our hands on them. We don’t want to wait and say ‘oh they’re going to be in shipment the last week of March.’ No, that doesn’t happen with us. We want to make sure that we have what we need to get through.”

He says accessing machinery parts is another challenge.

“We worry more about the parts and being able to secure them if we have a breakdown. The last two years, we’ve had to travel quite a bit of distance to get parts to keep the machinery running,” he says. “We spend more time in the shop now making sure that we don’t have down time in the off season than we do in the in season.”

Yeley raises corn, soybeans, and wheat on 3,000 acres in Clark and Edgar counties in Illinois and Vigo County, Indiana. 

Seib raises corn and soybeans on 3,000 acres in Posey County, Indiana.