Some details were delivered today about the Trump administration’s long-awaited financial relief plan for farmers. They’ve been seeing their markets shrink as a direct result of changes to trade policy — at a time when input costs are rising. Central to the plan is billions of dollars in one-time payments to growers of soybeans, corn, wheat and other crops. The aid comes as struggling farmers are making their business plans for the 2026 planting season.

Fifth-generation farmer Jed Bower grows corn and soybeans in southwest Ohio.

“I farm there with my wife and two kids. We're just under 1,100 acres,” Bower said.

Bower, and farmers he represents as head of the National Corn Growers Association, have had a tough year.

“Since China got out of the market, buying soybeans, a lot of growers maybe switch more acres over to corn,” he said.

So much corn was grown that it drove down what farmers can sell it for while the cost of farming stayed high.

“It’s our fertilized costs, our chemical costs, our seed costs and equipment cost,” he said.

Bower said the Trump administration’s aid package only provides a short-term solution. 

“That’s a Band-Aid,” he said. “That won’t help us long-term. But because we can't get these input prices to come back in line that will help us get through planting season with some cash flow issues.” 

Longer-term relief could come through more stable trade relationships. Michael Deliberto, a professor of agricultural policy at Louisiana State University, said soybean markets rallied in the fall when China agreed to buy U.S. soybeans again. 

“I think what every soybean producer is hoping for now is that China actually starts to follow through,” Deliberto said. “Soybean sales have been made to China, and I think it's a step in the right direction to kind of put some of this trade uncertainty at ease.” 

But there’s another country to consider that could affect the fortunes of U.S. farmers: Brazil. It continues to increase corn and soybean production.

“That's going to impact the market for years to come, because they just keep adding more supply to the to the market. And that's not a problem, as long as world demand continues to increase,” said Michael Langemeier at Purdue University’s College of Agriculture.

But if economies like China’s struggle, he said that can weigh on global demand for these commodities. And that hurts U.S. farmers.