Soybean farmers ‘grateful’ for Trump’s trade deal with China

(NewsNation) — In a move that is set to have major impacts on American farmers, China will resume buying soybeans from the United States as part of a deal announced by President Trump.

NewsNation Senior National Correspondent Brian Entin traveled to the nation’s Mid-South and Southeast to investigate how soybean farmers feel about the latest accord.

News of a trade deal with China is being closely watched across the heartland, as this year’s soybean farmers are in the midst of a season like no other.

China was once the top buyer of American soybeans, but that is no longer the case. It’s not hard to fathom the time and toil that went into planting Caleb Ragland’s expansive crop of soybeans in Central Kentucky.

What is tough to understand: Despite the new trade deal that President Trump says will have the Chinese buying soybeans again, Ragland, the farmer behind this expansive Kentucky crop, says he still won’t make a single dime of profit.

“These soybeans will probably lose $150 to $175 an acre. That’s $180,000 loss for my operation, and I’m not unique to anybody else in this area,” Ragland told NewsNation.

A ninth-generation Kentucky farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, Ragland is grateful for the trade deal news. The lifelong conservative and Trump supporter is anxiously awaiting to see how it may impact the litany of materials needed to grow his crop.

Imported fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides are currently slapped with retaliatory tariffs, with farmers left to foot the bill.

“Tariffs are a tax, and when there’s a tax, it raises the cost,” Ragland added.

Ben Westerfield’s job at Hopkinsville Elevator Company is getting soybeans to exporters. While soybean prices are down about 20% from two years ago, he can keep the supply flowing.

However, the largest market, China, is the most significant. The communist nation’s desire for soybeans is derived from it having more pigs than any other nation in the world, and the soybeans have a high concentration of protein.

Ragland is highly optimistic, but he says the devil is in the details. Other farmers NewsNation has spoken with are worried whether China will actually make the purchase or just buy a modest quantity of beans.