‘A whole lot of uncertainty’: Tariffs take a toll on Wisconsin farmers
Malchine Farms has corn crops
By Kendall Keys
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WIND LAKE, Wisconsin (WISN) — President Donald Trump says Wednesday a 104% tariff on China will go into effect.
The threat alone sent Wall Street sliding. The DOW skyrocketed more than 1,000 points at the beginning of trading, only to finish the day down more than 300 points. The NASDAQ and S&P also suffered huge losses. Trump called the massive tariffs “legendary.”
“I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation, not a bad one. It’s great. It’s going to be legendary; just you watch. Legendary, in a positive way, I have to say,” Trump said.
China said it would “fight to the end” of the trade war.
Local farmers are bracing for the impacts. Kevin Malchine is a sixth-generation farmer at Malchine Farms in Waterford.
“Our farm’s been here since 1854,” Malchine said.
His family’s been farming in Racine County since before the tractor was invented.
“You’ve been here for generations. Have you ever seen, heard of anything like this?” WISN 12 News reporter Kendall Keys asked.
“No. Nothing even close to this,” Malchine said.
Malchine, referring to the market volatility farmers are currently faced with, thanks in part, to tariffs. He said it’s impacting both market share and revenue.
“I don’t care if you’re talking about fertilizer, if you’re talking about what our crop prices are, come fall. It’s made things much more volatile,” Malchine said.
Much of the thousand acres of Malchine’s soybean crop exports to China. He said tariff increases hit farmers on imports, like fertilizer, and on exports when selling their crops.
“It’s really hitting us on both ends,” Malchine said.
This, as the Wisconsin Soybean Association says crop prices are already down 40 percent over the past two years.
“There’s just a whole lot of uncertainty, maybe more uncertainty than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” Malchine said.
He said the uncertainty is especially heightened during planting season. At his farm, they’ll plant soybeans by the end of the month. Some of the crop will likely sell for less than what they planned for months ago.
“We just don’t know where it’s going to end. That’s probably the hardest thing that we’re dealing with right now is that we just don’t know,” Malchine said.
The American Soybean Association estimates a 60 percent tariff into China could result in a $5.9 billion annual loss for the industry. That number could climb, could China’s implement retaliatory tariffs even higher.
“What does that look like for local farms?” Keys asked.
“It takes you from a chance of being close to breaking even to being in the red. There’s no doubt,” said Malchine. “The hope, of course, is that it gets resolved within the next couple of weeks or maybe even tomorrow.”
Soybeans aren’t the only crop hit hard by tariffs. Malchine has corn crops, too, many of which export outside of the U.S. Malchine said farmers with any crops are feeling the pain of increased costs and decreased revenue.
“The margins were tight to begin with,” said Malchine. “Things could come to a place where it creates quite a financial burden on farmers.”
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