Nebraska Ag Leaders Discuss How Trump Tariffs Will Impact Farmers

By Brian Beach

As Nebraska farmers begin planting crops this month, a new wave of tariffs will take effect, with the potential to impact the price of farm inputs and access to export markets.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a baseline tariff of 10% on all foreign goods. Many countries will face even higher “reciprocal tariffs,” meant to penalize them for current trade barriers. They include additional 34% tariffs on China, 24% on Japan and 20% on the European Union, all major export markets for U.S. agricultural goods.

Two days later, China responded by imposing its own 34% tariff on all U.S. goods beginning April 10.

Nebraska Farm Bureau President Mark McHargue said the escalating trade war hurts the state’s agricultural producers at both ends.

Farmers are already coming off a difficult year. In 2024, projected net farm income dropped by more than 4%, partially due to price decreases for corn, soybeans and wheat. Given current commodity prices, McHargue said Nebraska farmers are about to begin the growing season with the expectation of ending in the red.

“As we get ready to plant our crops here in the next couple of weeks, we are literally putting seeds in the ground that we're probably going to lose money on every acre,” he said.

While February projections for 2025 painted a rosier picture for farm income, the recently announced tariffs could put a damper on the outlook. McHargue said tariffs will make it harder to sell to export markets at competitive prices, while retaliatory tariffs from countries such as China will increase the price of fertilizer and other farm inputs.

“Any products that we buy for the farm, that we are putting the tariff on, it's going to cost us more money,” he said. “Any product we sell internationally, which is 30% of our crops, they're going to have to pay us less.”

McHargue met with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in March during a Washington D.C. trip to advocate for a farm bill and express concerns about proposed tariffs.

“The thing that I told her specifically was that we need to make sure that these tariffs are targeted, and they are as a short as we can make them, meaning, let's get in, use the tariff for accomplishing a specific task, and when that is accomplished, we take that tariff back off. Let's not do a broad, sweeping tariff just to raise money for our government,” he said.

McHargue said the tariffs that took effect Saturday do not fit his preferred description.

John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said tariffs can be both good and bad for U.S. agriculture, but it depends on how they are used.

“We have defended the use of targeted tariffs as a way to help better balance the trading playing field,” he said. “Yet, the way that Trump has gone about this, and the methodology that he's used, is far less than clear to anybody.”