BROADVIEW— Montana farmers are facing uncertainty going into this year's growing season due to a dry winter, high input prices and low commodity prices.
Broadview farmer Denise Conover said the snow Montana received last week gave her hope after an otherwise dry winter.
Watch the report:
"That boosts our morale that we can get these spring storms to make up the difference," said Conover.
Despite the precipitation, she added that conditions could change quickly.
"I mean, we're sitting good right today. But in a month, if it turns 100 degrees out, these things suffer," she said.
Related: Montana Ag Network: February heat raises worries for Montana’s winter wheat
Montana farmers are also concerned about equipment and fertilizer costs, which have remained high while commodity prices have remained low, causing farmers to lose money.
"How are we going to pay for these input costs with the price of the commodity right now?” said Conover.
“It's not a good scenario to be in right now," she added.
Hill County farmer Jeff Bangs agrees.
“It's been completely unbalanced for the price of commodities and the price of inputs, especially in the last year,” said Bangs.
“People are genuinely struggling figuring out what to even plant because there's not a lot of positive returns to be had out there right now,” he added.
Even with the high costs, a surplus in grain could cushion consumer prices. Conover is storing a third of last year’s wheat harvest in grain bins, and Bangs is storing more than half of last year’s chickpeas.
“I would guess all of our exportable commodities are sitting on a surplus because we've had some good production years,” said Bangs.
Walter Schweitzer, president of Montana Farmer’s Union, said tariffs affecting exports has contributed to the high volumes of surplus commodities, as well as the high production years.
Related: Montana businesses, farmers weigh impact of Supreme Court ruling on Trump tariffs
Related: Montana Ag Network: How tariffs abroad are impacting farmers at home
“The tariffs have kind of forced us to have lost a lot of our markets. And so right now, we still have a lot of old crop from the 2025 season in storage. And so, it's not gonna have that big of an impact if we have a drought this year, as it would in typical years, because we're going into this season with a surplus of grains,” said Schweitzer.
“Most of our customers and most of our competitors are developing relations and infrastructure so that they don't need us,” he added.
Amid the concerns, some farmers, such as Conover, remain optimistic about the upcoming growing season.
She pointed out the latest U.S. Wheat Associates report, which shows an increase in hard red winter wheat sales compared to last year.
“There's so many elements that are out of our control: weather, storms, hot temperatures. So, what we do on our farm is we try to get the best crop we can with the inputs that we need to put into it,” she said.
“We’ve gone through tough times before and we will again, and we'll have good times... it's a cycle. Commodities go up and down,” she added.
