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Nebraska farmer says inputs, not crop prices are the issue

A farmer in south-central Nebraska says record input costs are the biggest challenge facing producers.

“That’s a bigger problem than commodity prices, in my opinion.”

Ranch Uhrmahcer says corn and soybean prices are comparable to last year, but expenses have skyrocketed. “Fertilizer keeps going up. Your seed costs keep going up. Repairs are always going up. Insurance is a big one. Then you have taxes. When you add it all up, our expenses have gone through the roof the last few years.”

He tells Brownfield he’s not sure why costs are increasing, but there could be different reasons for each one. “Take insurance for instance, we had a lot of storms that took a lot of pivots and grain bins down. There was some hail over the last few years.”  

Uhrmacher says he is evaluating his crop rotation for next year in an effort to improve cost of production.