Soggy fields leave farmers with few good answers

Between the country’s trade dispute with China and the seemingly endless storms that have drenched the central U.S., Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt has had plenty of time to think about whether it’s too late to plant this season, how much federal aid he might get if he does or whether to skip it altogether and opt for an insurance payment.

Instead of driving his tractor, he’s driving a truck these days to earn a living while wondering how long it will be before he can return to his fields.

“Sometimes I think, what the heck am I doing farming?” he said recently by phone while returning home after hauling a shipment of dry ice to Chicago. “When you owe the bank money, you do some pretty crazy stuff.”

Ewoldt is one of thousands of Midwestern farmers facing such decisions as they endure a spring like no other. It started with poor corn and soybean prices falling even further as the U.S. and China imposed new tariffs, and was compounded by torrential rain and flooding that has made planting impossible and killed off crops that were just starting to emerge.