Around 2 a.m. on the late February day the U.S. went to war with Iran, a soybean and corn farmer in St. James, Minn., texted his local fuel supplier, who then scrambled to purchase diesel for the upcoming season.
The Middle East conflict was going to balloon diesel fuel and fertilizer prices. And for Minnesota farmers already dealing with razor-thin profit margins, that could be the difference between survival and failure.
“Had he not responded to me, I think we would have been in trouble,” farmer Andrew Karau said.
Farmers’ harvests in 2025 were mostly unprofitable, and many growers are expecting to again lose money this year. And that’s not just because of the war’s impact; the prices for crops continue to flag, and President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war is limiting international buyers.
As a result, officials expect farmers to grow fewer acres of crops across the state this year compared to last year.
“I think farmers by nature are optimistic — if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be farming,” said Rob Tate, a corn and soybean farmer in Cannon Falls, Minn. “So we do have hope that at some point in time, things will get better. But right now, this is a tough spot for most of our producers to be in.”
Corn and soy
The income from Minnesota farms growing corn and soybeans, often planted after each other on the same fields to improve crop yield, remained low in 2025. Government payments hoisted these operations roughly up to the break-even line, data from the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota shows.
Pauline Van Nurden, an economist at the center, said the costs of farmland rent, seed and other expenses, such as interest payments, have remained high. Tom Slunecka, CEO at the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council, said there’s no way for farmers to make up for these higher costs.