Farmer and Agronomist in WC IA. Views are my own and don't reflect any business or organization
Guthrie Center, IA
Joined November 2025
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Couldn’t have said the words better myself.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
Oh, I think they'll continue fighting, but they are definitely weakening fast.
This election was an all out repudiation of their ideals and hubris.
Just saying something and claiming it was so, without meaningful action wasn't a winning strategy.
To the Christian owner who says, “None of the local guys want to work anymore”:
Look in the mirror.
You paid twelve dollars an hour under the table to imported labor for twenty years and destroyed the apprenticeship pipeline in your county.
You told the boys in your church that construction was for losers who couldn't get into college.
Now you’re sixty-five, you have no foremen, and you’re begging a private equity firm to bail you out.
You reaped what you sowed.
Repent. Fund trade scholarships in your church. Hire local young men and pay them a proper wage.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
I respectfully and VEHEMENTLY disagree with the CEO's assertions.
We traded family dairy farms that supported their communities, for immigrants and the cheap labor they provided.
Now we get to reap that which was sown 30 years ago.
Is this trying to soften the blow?!
If you go to bed on election night and don't know who won a midterm congressional race, that's normal. And if you wake up the next morning and find that a candidate who was behind hours earlier has since pulled ahead, that's normal, too. (via @PolitiFact) to.pbs.org/4zqnWBa
About time for another @usda_nass report fix ain’t it?
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
Since Obamacare passed in 2010
Health insurers spent $120 billion+ buying back their own stock.
Americans piled up $220 billion in medical debt.
Hundreds of rural hospitals ended up at risk of closing.
Your premiums didn't buy you health care. They bought Wall Street a raise.
How weird. Govt intervention into a “free market” and they made it worse.
It’s past time to get the govt out of healthcare. @BCBSAssociation do better
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois covers about 7 out of every 10 people in this state who buy their own health insurance. Farmers. Small business owners. The self-employed.
Last year they asked regulators for a 27% average increase. The state approved 28.2%. More than they asked for.
This year they asked for 14.9%. Approved exactly as filed. Some plans are going up 33.9%.
Stack those two years together and the average Blue Cross customer is paying about 47% more than they did in 2025.
My family's bill went from $1,594 to $1,956 a month for 3 people.
When one company has 70% of the market, it's not a market.
As long as I've been around farming, we have said, "We want market-based solutions." I believe that's what most of us want; we don't want to live off government payments. We need a functional market for our end product. Monopolistic tendencies exist on inputs and end use today.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
Ha…..I don’t think it is. I think it’s organizational failure due to an antiquated and useless system. We don’t need any reports from the government other than RMA backed data. The free market with basis and eyes can easily do the rest.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
NASS might have some explaining to do or will they just kick the can down the road?
I took the available independent FIRST trial plot results for Illinois that are available today, charted below are all of the locations that have harvest data for both 25 and 26.
5 trials increased the site average compared to LY
24 trials decreased the site yield compared to last year.
I know they said it was a Nebraska issue, but real field outcomes don’t match what's happening in IL across the state.
This is way bigger than row-crop production ag. Look how many concrete, construction, trucking, and horticulture businesses show up in just a quick AI search. These businesses used to be the backbone of America. Now we continue to gut them with alphabet-soup visa programs.
@SecRollins @Pharaoh_Q_Lucas @ChuckGrassley @CongressmanGT @ChrisBennettMS @AdamLasch1 @WItitan2
If you’re a young farmer thinking your way into agriculture is performing a service like custom application, think again. Your value is being hollowed out by ag co-ops gaming the system to use arbitrage labor from foreign visa workers to lower the bar yet again. #h2A #h1b #AgTwitter
seasonaljobs.dol.gov/jobs/H-…
There's a new version of this post
NASS just corrected an error in the Sept. WASDE. USDA’s NASS says it found a processing error in September 2026 corn data affecting Kansas, Nebraska and U.S. yield and production forecasts.
NASS corrected the September figures, but October’s WASDE forecast remains unchanged: 181.2 bu./acre, up 2.7 bu. from September, with production projected at more than 16 billion bushels.
nass.usda.gov/Newsroom//Noti…
Can someone explain to me why the densest populated area in Iowa also has the highest concentration of H2A “agricultural” temp labor apps? The area with least amount of arable ground needs the most temp workers? @Pharaoh_Q_Lucas where are these visa workers working?
"The drug that keeps you sick"
Subsidies are not the farmer’s friend. They drive up costs and make us all look like socialists and welfare queens. Ultimately, they’re a whole lot like welfare in that they tend to keep their recipients poor unless the recipient learns how to farm them at scale. They’re not meant for you, they’re meant for banks, equipment companies, fertilizer companies, seed companies, and other suppliers who line politicians pockets.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
“This crop is bigger than we think.”
Then show the data if you’re so confident. Fear isn’t analysis.
Some of you talk like you’ve farmed forever but couldn’t operate a battery-powered toy chainsaw.
Sure feels like we’re growing more “grain analysts” than farmers.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
Ask yourself why margins are tight.
Every government payment is a dollar that doesn't have to come from the market, meaning signals aren't happening, meaning price discovery isn't taking place, meaning inputs stay high, meaning margin compression continues.
Death by 1k cuts.
Ryan Steffensen retweeted
no one wants to admit it, but if the US Government bought 1 billion bushels of Corn at $5/bushel and set it on fire, it would do more for Farmers than +$50 billion dollars worth of subsidies
but of course, these programs do not really benefit the Farmers directly, rather the ones they owe money to
