AI Transforms Farm Decision-Making as Producers Navigate Uncertainty on Tariffs and Interest Rates

[Paul Yeager] Time to look at the bottom line. Oh, who am I kidding? You always are looking at the bottom line. How much is an input? How much are you going to sell it for? Is constantly on the mind of those in agriculture and in business. No different right now as commodity prices are lower. There appears to be trade troubles, as always. Tariffs being talked about. What's the impact there for the farmer? What is what are you looking at right now. We're going to talk with Charles Barron from Farmers Business Network. Revisit with him about what their services are and just kind of some of the models, how they're using some computers to kind of help you out and figure out what is working, what is a plan of action, and what's the landscape right now? We're going to talk heavy in trade. We may go off the rails just a tiny bit. I just get a little obsessed talking about the topic and certain things. So Charles is going to discuss, I, we're going to talk about federal interest, the fed, the fed rate. The interest rate. What's that mean? What happens if it's lower a quarter or a half point? What's that mean? We'll talk about land purchases. Equipment purchases. What is happening right now? Details over talk. What matters when it comes to trade? That's what is the main focus of today's episode. And a reminder, get signed up for our Market Insider newsletter. We send that out every Monday. We have updates, give you previews of what's coming ahead in this podcast or else on the show. We got a big party coming up the end of August. We're writing about it right now in the market. Insider newsletter subscribe at Market to market.org. I'm Paul Yeager, by the way. Here is this week's installment of the MToM podcast  How's business in the Farmers Business Network? Do you feel good about business right now?

[Charles Baron] It's good to be with you, Paul. Yeah. This has been a pretty interesting year. I mean, I think when we last talked back in October, November, you know, we were looking out at the year, and you could see all the different horizons of risks that were on the table with, trade disruptions, the potential for tariffs and a trade war. And now we've started to see those play out. And we've also been able to see that play out in what was already a background of a pretty tough farm economy. So, you know, I think what we've seen is that producers have been, you know, generally, much more careful about making investments into their crops. Throughout the year, they've sort of really kind of staggered their purchasing and are buying right at the moment of need, as their own finances or, you know, they have to watch their operating costs and their working capital, and they have to manage their own commodity risk as well as what's going on in the market. So it's it's had a bit of a bit of a different shape to it than normal. What we would consider sort of a normal ag year, which sees a big run up in producer purchasing as you get into planting. And this year it's been much more, much more sort of buying just in time and buying, just at the point of need, from farmers across the country. So FBN is a network of, producers online, and it allows farmers to come by inputs, get loans, market their grain access, sustainability premiums and services. We have grain marketing advisory programs you can buy in the inputs. You can buy products including, you know, everything from crop protection to seeds, certain types of fertilizers, livestock feed, livestock supplies and animal health products. So we really try and, serve the the whole farmers need to reduce their operating costs by, you know, making their purchasing more efficient and then improve the value of their yields by giving a better market intelligence, giving them agronomic insights, and using things like artificial intelligence to help their decision making, and then access worlds and premiums, through, things like sustainability and regenerative agriculture.

[Yeager] Well, let's go back to the very first answer you gave, and let's see if you give the same answer to this question. But how would you state the state of the farm economy right now?

[Baron] I think it just continues to have a lot of uncertainty. This has been a tough year. I think last year was a tough year, and this year probably just has more embedded uncertainty. And as producers are going into the year, I think there's been moments where you sort of farmers have tried to readjust to, you know, a new normal. And then, you know, I think, the market got a bit of a shock in the last week, with some, what is a very good crop. You know, the irony here is we've planted a very big. And now what looks like a very healthy, crop in corn. And, and that's put more pressure on prices. So, you know, I think you see a lot of, farmers, the fair amount of uncertainty is we see have plenty of farmers who are, you know, very confident or you just like this is normal. We go through these cycles, you got to buckle down. But, you know, it's been certainly been a year that's caused a lot of stress on the farm.

[Yeager] Well, I actually wrote that down to talk about the size of the crop. Do you think that there are producers out there that you talk with thinking they're going to be able to produce their way out of lower prices?

[Baron] Well, that's the interesting, interesting dynamic. So, in the run up to the year, more farmers switched. In March and April, we saw a late shift into corn. And so a lot of farmers reacted to prices at that moment, by chasing corn, that corn crop. We had a pretty smooth and early planting. We have not had a lot of extreme weather or major drought events, you know, throughout the country. And, we've had a lot of heat and a decent amount of moisture. So, right now the crop looks quite healthy, and quite strong. And so there's just some numbers that we're going out on social media a week ago, which caused a bit of an uproar.

[Yeager] You can say that again.

[Baron] It's national predictions of 187 bushel yield. We just came out with our own planted acres, estimate the week before. We're in surveys, our producers, and we estimated at 95 million acres. You know, corn number. So that confirmed, you know, a larger shift to corn. Not quite as big as, you know, what some people were, were expecting. Now, are you going to, you know, get a truly get a 187 bushels? That would be, you know, a massive, massive jump. But, there just haven't been all the interruptions that, you know, you normally see or sort of some of the big regional disruptions we haven't had a big diretto. We haven't had, you know, other other impacts that, you know, show up, this year, obviously there's been rain, there's been flooding in various pockets. But by and large, it's been a pretty good year.

[Yeager] You're kind of the gateway where you are physically located to what was kind of dry. Then did get some rain. And I'm, a little further east, go out to Indiana, Ohio, and they'll tell you different stories about how wet. Then you start looking at these pollination issue questions that emerge when all of that is factored in. How does an AI computer help me make sense of that versus my emotion of I know it's dry or I know it's wet, right.

[Baron] Well, you know, there's various signals that you have to react to, you know, but I think, you know, when you look at that, you can always just compare what you're seeing in the current crop to, you know, your historical weather. And it's useful to go back to your own farms, you know, historical weather, your, your historical trend lines, and, you know, that gives you, you know, your gut check and on your, on your, you know, your gut perception. But, you know what? I can really help when farmers are faced with specific issues, you know, related to the market or related to, you know, of some pasture disease issue. I it's sort of like an agronomist or an advisor that you can tap into and that can provide you, you know, a synthesis and a decision making process, to go through, and so we've actually started experimenting this this year with an AI grain marketing advisor. So it allows farmers to come in at any location and they can, you know, tell us where they are or it knows where they are, and then it finds all the regional prices for them. And, you know, we're experimenting with some interactivity there about how farmers can, get, you know, specific local marketing advice based on the local conditions. And then ultimately, you know, what we want to do is be able to connect that kind of grain market intelligence to your field specific intelligence, which is being monitored through either satellite imagery or your machinery, to give you a very, very personalized, you know, comprehensive plan, both agronomic and financially, for the farm on an ongoing basis.

[Yeager] We know that we guessed, I should say, hypothesized that was happening out there. So you're saying the a little bit of the quiet part out loud that, yes, it's being out there and and a farmer needs no, just like those high yield estimates, they need to know that there are people thinking this and this is what's going on. I think that just helps a producer make probably better decisions. Is that right?

[Baron] Yeah. Well, in our context, that's always when we say, you know, we're working on that, that's, that's a system or a product that a producer would use. Right. So there may be, you know, grain traders out there who are, you know, using AI in different capacities. If they're looking at market estimates, you know, the way it operates is it's a system for farmers. We're often an advisor to the farm when it comes to us being a grain marketing advisor. We do have an advisory program, or us providing agronomic advice. But really, you know, that synthesis of putting all the different pieces of the farm system together into the decision making that a farm, has to operate? That's what the farmers are doing on their own, trying to piece that all together. And what AI is going to enable them to do is really to have an assistant in that, in the future, pulling all those different threads of, local field specific intelligence, pest specific or issues that might be popping up everything from your soil sample to taking pictures of, you know, the diseases that are showing up in the field to then what's going on in the market locally, nationally, etc. and, and helping you, navigate that process.

[Yeager] We're also trying to navigate trade policy and it changes a lot. It changes quickly. You mentioned it off the top there when we talked in October, November. We heard campaign promises. They've become reality for a lot of things, which is what has been the biggest trade headline you think farmers have had to navigate so far? Here in July of ‘25.

[Baron] Oh, geez. There's there's been a lot you know, I think that the complex thing of trade with ag is it's so multi-sided. So it is impacting producers on their exports. It's impacting the end markets. It's impacting some of the, downstream programs that we're bringing premium. So the EU, for example, has slowed down some of the appetite for premium programs that were driving premiums and sustainability premiums into the US. And then on the cost side, it has really, you know, thrown, you know, a lot of confusion, I would say, into the supply chain of major inputs, you know, certainly with, fertilizers from Canada, but also in agrochemicals, which come very heavily from Asia, from China, from India. And, and really, you know, the most challenging thing is uncertainty in that, it's one thing if we say, hey, there's a tariff, it's going to be 10%, it's going to be 25%. And that is stuck with and that's going to be the plan for the next four years. I think most businesses can adapt to that and react to that. When there's an announcement that the tariff could be 27, 74, 90%, 100% plus, and then that goes away two weeks later, that is an incredibly difficult environment for us to manage a supply chain. When you have products, you know, moving off boats or needing to have large, large procurement that needs to take place months and months and ahead, then you have to very be extremely careful and extremely cautious as to how you manage the inventory that exists in the United States. That can be sold and then what you're, you're willing to commit to that could be coming from abroad in the next several months. So, you know, there's so many ways we deal with Canada. With Mexico, we have China, we have the EU. You know, AG is, ag and, you know, Iowa and Nebraska and, you know, Midwestern producers, you know, we're selling in a global market. And so we're touching all these countries, whether it's Mexico, China or, you know, Europe or dealing.

[Yeager] If there are reactions to be made, do you think that the market is reacting as harshly, as quickly as valid or the most volatile as it did in the beginning, or is the market kind of softened to its response when there's just a threat made?

[Baron] I think, you know, with, I think the grain markets are probably digesting the information. They're a little more liquid and there's probably more, you know, more openness as to, you know, what's going on in those trades in terms of the information in the supply chains that manufacturers or retailers like FBN have to deal with the uncertainty is really the the biggest challenge because like I said, it's very hard to plan if you think, you know, one day it's 27 and the next day it's 97, and then the next day we're back to ten. And then if you bought something, by the time it shows up that product, you know, the tariff could go away completely. And now you're now you're selling it, you know, below, below what you actually acquired it for. So what we have seen is that, initially when the tariffs came out, you know, we might have anticipated a steeper shock in prices that made their way to farmers and the input side. And I think what happened, in fact, is there was enough product sort of sitting in the United States, when you talk about agrochemical or certain other inputs that it didn't cause as steep of a price increase right off the bat as people, you know, may have estimated, but that's slowly started to work its way through. And as the product that's sitting here, you know, gets sold, it gets, you know, gets exhausted, then manufacturers and retailers are dealing with the very tricky problem of how much do you commit to, to bring in and at what at what cost level, because you have all this uncertainty as to where these these tariffs can land.

[Yeager] Are you getting the sense the businesses let's talk suppliers specifically here these middle that that I'm picking up has some of the most headaches. Are they much more cautious in their bookings of things? And maybe just going what they used to always do at this time of year as a roadmap versus 27 to 70 to 150%?

[Baron] Yeah. I mean, I think when you saw the start of the there's going to be a trade war, then what you saw manufacturers, retailers do was stock up. So you saw a big you, you saw a big increase in imports that happened in the run up in anticipation of the tariffs. Since that time you saw a very steep drop off in the amount of imports that have taken place. You know, once the tariffs were formally announced and now the tricky thing is going to be how to balance those two out, you know, at what point is there the supply sort of exhaust itself, in the US market to the point where you have to start replenishing it. And then as you're replenishing it, at what amount do you actually commit to? Because, you know, let's say you let's say you decided to buy your entire next year's worth of inventory, the week that you thought the tariffs were going to be 134%, that would be completely disastrous. If those tariffs then, you know, went away six months later. So that's the very, very tricky thing that, that, that people have to account for.

[Yeager] What is a bigger problem for supply chains, the volatility of the, the threat or is it details? I mean, when I say details, they don't have any details and therefore it seems like it's frustrating.

[Baron] Yeah. Yeah it's it's it's both but it's really specifically the volatility. Right. I think you know in essence the market could react to whatever the number is and the business environment will adjust. Now that doesn't mean that that's going to be good for farmers. So that doesn't mean that there's going to be a good business environment. If suddenly the cost of everything goes up 30%. But that certainty at least allows people to plan and allows farmers to plan, allows people to adapt and change and make product decisions. But when things are just moving around a lot, that's the hardest. That's the hardest environment for companies and for farmers to react.

[Yeager] Why then, are businesses reacting if there's not been details, if it's just a threat?

[Baron] Well, it is certain you have to manage your risk. Right. You have to take people at their word, and you have to assume that, you know, this is the envelope of risk that you might be exposed to. And so the cost of inaction, there could be, you know, some if you get caught on the wrong side of that, and the cost of too much action, you know, you could get caught on the wrong side of that as well. So I think there's probably a little. Understanding now than in the very early days of the trade war that things might not move as dramatically or in as the bigger swings as, you know, the threats, as people sort of adapt to, you know, the Trump negotiating style. But, you still have to manage that risk, and you have to watch it, very tightly because, you know, yeah, it creates the most fundamental uncertainty for any, any important business.

[Yeager] Do you think in 2 to 5 years, global trade is even going to matter to your businesses or your farmers that you work with?

[Baron] I think absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, look at, look at the bulk of, of agriculture, I mean, the US agriculture is one of the most important exporting industries for the United States. And you look across the access for whether it's in beef, whether it's in pork, soybeans, you know, we are and, you know, alfalfa, just throughout the system, throughout the United States, exports are a huge part of our market. So we absolutely need, you know, strong trading relationships, and strong market access. And, you know, I think that's, that's one side. And then, and then you really just need stability and predictability. On, on the costs for the supply chain. Now in some, some products, you know, switching on a new country, like, let's just say you wanted to switch from China to India, or, you know, China to domestic, right? Some of these things are very difficult to move. You know, you talk about, mining of, you know, raw technical ingredients, or mining of fertilizers. You talk about, chemical manufacturing. Some of these are facilities that the United States just simply hasn't wanted to build or hasn't enabled to be built, you know, for decades. And so, even if there was a country who suddenly, you know, wanted to shift demand, there are very long lead time, you know, pieces of industrial infrastructure that take, you know, many years to plan, finance and, and build. So it's not simple for the world to adapt on a dime, to some of these. Now, are there agronomic decisions that farmers can make around those? You know, if those become certain products, become just continuously very high cost? Sure. But we are still dealing with, you know, that all said, all the trade uncertainty that we've had in some product categories, like in chemical and crop protection, we're still dealing with historically very good prices. So even though our prices have gone up about, you know, ten, 15% or so, since the start of the trade war, these are still much better prices than we were dealing with, you know, for farmers two years ago. Three years ago, when you had, you know, even more uncertainty in the supply chain during Covid. So for example, glyphosate, you know, which is, you know, ubiquitous agrochemical price has gone up in our system about 15% since that, since the trade war. So, but it's still $14 or $13 a gallon. And it was $72 a gallon in its peak, in 2022. Right. So so we're still in a, you know, historically better environment on certain inputs, certain inputs like seed, are not really tied to tariffs and trade. And so that is really decoupled. And really seed prices have just continued to rise year over year over year, you know, for the last, you know, many years. Because of the, you know, the trade, licensing, programs that seed manufacturers deploy. So that one, you really can't say trade is, is causing the issue and input costs. That's really more of the domestic, you know, ag manufacturing, dynamics, or the dynamics of those, the seed companies, and then the question is, okay, well, what's going to be my corn price and what's going to what's what's my crop going to be worth the can I afford those inputs? So, you know, it's it's specific and it's each different part of egg, you know, that the farmer has to manage. But, you know, ultimately, you know, strong markets are going to create better prices. And that's going to make it easier for farmers to manage this uncertainty.

[Yeager] But I hear we need to take care. We can take care of a lot of our domestic produced commodities here, and we don't need to worry about a trade partner. Is that something that can we chew through all the corn and all the beans and all the cotton and all the wheat that we produce, and just take care of it here and, and not have to worry about an export.

[Baron] There's a lot to work through there. You know, you're starting to talk about 20 to 30% of some of the major commodity crops. So, I don't know that we have an immediate offtake. And if you did and suddenly 20% of the market disappeared, you'd have an immediate collapse in the price. Right?

[Yeager] You would. But that's some of the sentiment that's out there. And I think even some policymakers who think we don't need export countries, let's just take care of it ourselves.

[Baron] Yeah. We'll have to invent a lot of new uses. I mean, don't don't, don't try work on that. You know, when something becomes very cheap, people figure out how to use it. But, the immediate term, you know, distress that would cause, you know, if you suddenly had a quarter of the corn market disappear, whether through export or other, you know, ethanol regulations, or a third of the bean market disappear. Then you're talking about, you know, a decrease of, you know, 30% or more in price, to a typical farm's income. And, and right now, the farm absolutely can't sustain that.

[Yeager] What happens if then, okay, 30% goes away off of the export acres get flipped to something else, right? I mean, they're going to have to put those acres into use because it's the banks not allowing them to let them just sit fallow for a year. It gets it starts getting very complicated at that point. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's hard to, you know, fully envision, you know, that scenario. But that becomes very difficult for folks to manage because you're either going to, you know, we're going to have to come up with conservation programs or other things that would, you know, cover that. But, that becomes a very difficult situation for a lot of farmers to manage.

[Yeager] How does a farm manage then watching trade negotiations? And is there a specific country you've already mentioned? EU, India and China are those kind of the big three for agriculture right now in your mind?

[Baron] Well, the big ones for agriculture are China, Canada, Mexico and the EU. And you know, Mexico is a massive, you know, massive export partner for corn. Canada is a massive import partner for fertilizers. So it's really critical for, you know, our fertilizer supply. So if we're putting a, major tariff on Canadian imports, that can have a very sharp impact on fertilizer prices. And then China, you know, it is pork, it's soybeans. It's corn to a lesser extent. And then it's, the imports of products that we get from China, which are quite important to the agrochemical supply chain. So those are the big ones, in our bilateral, does.

[Yeager] But does agriculture lead in those bilateral discussions? I mean, you hear you don't hear agriculture. We do. And what you and I talk about on a regular basis, but I don't see it on national news as much about the agriculture side. It's about drugs. It's about lumber. It's about maple sirup or. You know, it's not necessarily the ag products, but AG is a huge part of this discussion. Right?

[Baron] AG is a major part and I think it is features very probably because AG is also where, where other country of Italian is against you know, AG is a politically sensitive, you know, part of the economy. And so it's, it's one that, you know, other countries can react to, in a very specific way, which is, you know, typically what you end up seeing.

[Yeager] All right. Let's shift to interest rates. Let's get more political, shall we? What happens to the farmer? I mean, the president keeps calling for lower interest rates. Then there's the Wall Street doesn't respond the way he wants, or there's models that say, if you do this, this happens. What happens if there's a half a point cut in interest rates in agriculture? What's that mean?

[Baron] It'd be very helpful. So, so, you know, cost of financing land right now is, you know, is historically expensive. Certainly a major run up from where we were, you know, for the last ten years when, you know, you had rates in the as low as, you know, single, did you know, one 1 to 2% interest rates on 30 year loans, in 2021, and 2020, which is obviously was a Covid reaction. But then they sort of stabilized in the, you know, 2 to 4% range. Now you're seeing, you know, interest rates in the, you know, high 5 to 8% for, you know, land and farmers are not this year is not uncommon for farmers to have operating loans of, you know, 11%, you know, so that that gets quite taxing on a farm. You layer that on top of these higher input costs and lower prices, and it's just more, you know, more systemic stress on the farm. So lower interest rates will have a very, very immediate and positive impact. For farmers, it's going to, number one is going to allow land to get refinanced that had been purchased in the last few years. Number two, it's going to immediately, you know, lower the operating costs and not expensive, most farms, and that's, that's going to, filter all the way through the system.

[Yeager] Let's stick with land. Then, in that discussion for a moment, how many farmers are actually using the bank to buy land? Because we hear anecdotally, Nana, that's there's that's not happening. On the majority of the land is being paid for in cash.

[Baron] Oh, no. You know, a lot of land is financed, on new purchases. And so FBN is a major, major lender, for real estate. You know, certainly volumes of real estate loans and real estate refinancing, you know, went down, pretty sharply as interest rates rose, specifically refinancing because, you know, basically everybody refinanced when, you had rates, you know, the one 3% range was just a historically good opportunity. New purchases slowed a bit. But, you know, farmers are still acquiring land, and a lot of farmers are, you know, acquiring with the mentality of, it's better to get it when you can and hold it. And, you know, if you can make the economics pencil today, then absolutely get it. And you, you'll, you'll catch it on the other side if rates come down and you can refinance.

[Yeager] So you're getting a sense that half of your customers are using financing to make land purchases.

[Baron] Oh, well, 100% of our customers are okay when they're purchasing because that's, you know, that's the business, you know, in our in our side of lending. But, yeah. So, you know, I think we've seen we have absolutely seen a decrease in the total volume of real estate purchases that's taking place, or and refinancing. But through the last 2 or 3 years, the demand has actually held fairly steady. You haven't seen it grow. But it's held, you know, held fairly steady. Whereas in the, you know, in the preceding year you saw in and preceding couple of years you saw demand just skyrocket as every firm wanted to refinance, every partial that they, they had.

[Yeager] Demand for refinancing. You're seeing the skyrocketing, you know. Okay. I thought maybe you were discussing demand on farmland because. Are you ever experiencing, still a strong demand and high prices for land at sales, or has that high price ship sailed for it?

[Baron] No. It's steady, I would say. It's like we haven't, we haven't seen a massive decrease in the volume of new purchases. You just you're you're sort of, you know, if there's land available, farmers will find a way to purchase it and sort of justify the purchase in this environment. If they see a path, the rates being lower, in the future.

[Yeager] Certainly so steady at least. Yeah. To not declining. So does that mean then it's not the interest rate could stay where it's at or even go up and there would still be purchases made. They'd be more painful. Of course.

[Baron] I think there's a I mean, we, we see as a function of the interest rate, you know, so every quarter point or, you know, half point, the interest rate goes up, we see a decrease in total loan volumes or total total, you know, a volume of new purchases that takes place. That said, we have sort of been able to hold the volume of those loans that we've been, you know, that we've been seeing and getting requests for, in the last couple of years. So the overall demand may have come down slightly. Our business has been very steady, very stable, throughout this, but if rates come down, you will absolutely see lots of land. Come on the market and lots of new purchasers enter, you know, you have sales.

[Yeager] Okay. Do the corporate thing, put the pen in the land. When I ask this next question, are if a farmer is not making purchase on a land, or is are they sacrificing equipment new or used, or other expenses that could be held to respond to the other higher rate they're having to pay on that land?

[Baron] Yeah. Equipment is one that you've seen, you know, very dramatic, very dramatic cost increase on, in the last, last two years. I think equipment is probably the one that that gets delayed on the new purchases. But the used equipment prices have, you know, been, quite, high, in the last, the last year. I think that's come down a bit. But I think demand on new equipment is probably one of the first places that farmers start to question.

[Yeager] And when you see, do you buy into the theory of when you see used equipment, outpace new equipment, that's not necessarily a great sign.

[Baron] It's a sign of, it certainly is a sign of, you know, there's more distress, out there. And there is. And I think that's that's very players like you have you just are going to have more farms with distressed financials, you know, this year and going into next year. So, you know, if we're going to have continue to stay in a very low commodity price environment, that's, that's going to continue, what's going to provide relief on that? Obviously, interest rates and interest rates coming down will provide relief. But obviously most important thing is it's fundamentally stronger prices for the crop.

[Yeager] Isn't there a concern though, if, farmer has more money in a pocket because of lower interest rate, they're going to push the demand for something else, therefore inflating prices because demand is strong.

[Baron] I mean, you know, that can happen and that can happen in real estate, but it's really you know, it's really a question of does that payment, you know, can that payment be supported by the productivity of that, of that land? You know, everybody's got to run that equation. And I don't think people are going to get totally upside down. But, you know, farmers tend to also have a pretty long term view and they think, okay, you know, how long is $4 corn going to last? And if we get back to the mid 40s, fives, etc., and you have a moment to take land and lock in a good interest rate, that may not be a bad, bad equation. Even if there's, you know, a year or two, a pain.

[Yeager] What's the headline? When we talk in 10 to 11 months from now, Charles?

[Baron] That's going to I, I hope the headline is sort of the stabilization of the trade, the trade situation. I think that's probably the most important thing if you if you said, you know, of every everything that's, that's taking place, if simply we can get to, you know, some stability and just consistency, that we can operate in for a year or two, you know, ideally more than time, ideally four years. But, if we can get it to get a year of, you know, sort of, you know, smooth water in terms of just not having massive shocks on those relationships. I think the market will be able to adapt to a new reality. Fairly quickly.

[Yeager] You really speak like a farmer because that's very optimistic. It doesn't seem that there has been much to make us think that this will be calm, in the way, if past history is any indication.

[Baron] Yeah, it depends how aggressively the US is really, you know, goes after these bilateral relationships, how quickly those other countries come to the table. I was with, you know, farmers yesterday and they were surprisingly, you know, surprisingly optimistic. There's some very big, very sophisticated, operations. And, you know, they were very optimistic. And as with, you know, some folks involved in international negotiations and they said, you know, a lot of countries are, you know, are starting to come to the table, fairly quickly. Who are major, you know, who could be bigger export partners. So you might see some new markets open up. But, you know, the really big ones that drive the market, you know, China, Mexico, Canada, the EU, those are the most important. And so we need, you know, we need some stability in those relationships.

[Yeager] Charles, good to talk to you again, I appreciate it. Thanks for enlightening me on all my crazy questions.

[Baron] Great to be with you.

[Yeager] For executive producer David Miller, I'm Paul Yeager, your producer and editor. Audio assistance comes in the form of David Feingold, Reid Denker, Kevin Rivers, Julie Knutson, Neil Kyer, and their boss, Sean Ingrassia. Thank you. And we'll see you next time.

Contact: Paul.yeager@iowapbs.org