Farmers overseeing millions of acres of land from North Dakota to Kentucky are switching up which crop seeds to plant, cutting fertilizer purchases and using fewer seeds than originally planned this planting season.
Fighting in the Middle East has sent fertilizer prices soaring. The cost of diesel fuel for tractors and other farm machinery is also rising, leading farmers to cut whatever costs they can from their budgets.
One easy answer: More soy and less corn.
Soybeans require less fertilizer to grow than corn. American farmers intend to plant 84.7 million soybean acres in 2026, up 4% from last year, according to a March report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Corn acres planted are expected to decline from 2025, but remain the country’s most popular crop.
Corn growers are estimated to lose nearly $150 per acre this year, according to USDA estimates. Ninety-four percent of farmers said their financial situation had worsened or remained the same since last year, according to an April survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group.
“It’s clear our farmers are feeling the pinch,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday about rising fertilizer prices.
Here’s how three U.S. farmers are preparing this season.
Iowa: Dave Walton
On a 1,000-acre farm just west of the Mississippi River, Walton typically splits his land for half to grow corn and half for soybeans.
This year, he is shifting to 60/40 split. He plans to plant 100 more acres of soybeans because of the higher fertilizer prices. Soybean plants are legumes that can pull nitrogen from the air and feed it into the soil, significantly reducing its fertilizer needs. That can make it far cheaper to plant than corn, which needs high amounts of nitrogen to produce the chlorophyll essential for photosynthesis.
While farmers’ growing plans are typically set months in advance to secure supplies such as seeds and pesticides, the Middle East war has changed Walton’s calculus. He estimates that his total farm costs so far this year are up about 20%.
Farmers typically buy the bulk of their supplies in the fall. But more farmers than usual, including Walton, waited until spring on the expectation that prices would drop. Some planned to use checks from the Trump administration’s $12-billion farm bailout to help with their costs.
The Iowa farmer is gambling on good weather and leftover nutrients in the soil from last year’s crop as he plans to slash his fertilizer usage this year.
“We’re probably fertilizing half the acres we normally would,” he said. “We’re betting fertilizer prices will go back to normal next year.”
Walton is also planning to expand his small herd of about 80 cows to 100 to capitalize on skyrocketing cattle prices. It is one of the few areas of farming that is profitable right now.
North Dakota: Greg Amundson
On 3,000 acres in northeastern North Dakota, Amundson estimates it usually costs him around $480 to plant an acre of corn. It’s $325 an acre for soybeans. Both crops have been at least breaking even the past few years, he said. Soybean prices are too low to make a profit despite being cheaper to plant than corn.
“We have $1.2 million going out and $1.2 million coming in,” Amundson said, referring to about how much it costs to run his farm.
This year, with the higher fertilizer costs, it is about $540 to plant an acre of corn. Amundson doesn’t want to mess with his usual planting plans and would rather apply less fertilizer than pay the higher price tag for it. If it is too wet in the spring, he might have to spend more on other items such as fungicide.
Because of rising crop-seed costs, he is cutting back on the number of seeds he plants per acre. He is hoping that improvements in how the seeds perform when planted will compensate for using less of them.
Kentucky: Timmy Jones
Jones, a farmer in Marion County, splits his 400 acres of row crops between corn and soybeans.
This year, he is planning to put about 20% of his corn crop into producing hay to help feed his growing cattle herd, which is making money, and an extra 15% into more soybeans to cut fertilizer costs.
Jones thinks he can return some of the corn seed he brought back to his local retailer.
That could help him save on fertilizer costs, too. Urea—a nitrogen fertilizer commonly used by American farmers—was about $520 a ton in January, he said; now it is more than $850 a ton.
“We’re getting stuck with high prices now,” he said.
Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com
