By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

NORMAL, Ill. — Jim Raben has traveled to Mexico City with the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) to meet with assembled appointees of the new Mexican president to discuss trade topics. He has also traveled to Brazil this year to assess its grain trade, providing him a current perspective on global agricultural trade issues.

Raben, a southern Illinois farmer who serves as secretary-treasurer for the USGC and District 15 director for the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, attended the recent WILLAg.org Farm Assets Conference in Normal to share his thoughts on trade issues and Congress’ failure to yet pass a 2018 farm bill.

As a producer, he has been negatively affected by ongoing trade issues with China, Mexico, Canada and other nations, spun into motion in April with the Trump administration's announcement of $50 billion in new tariffs on U.S. imports from China.

“At the onset of (President Trump) announcing that he was doing away with NAFTA and the Chinese tariffs, the board of trade took a dive; it killed demand. With a situation like that, it comes back to the producer. We saw beans come down to $8 from $10 (per bushel), with the cost of production above $8 by a long shot,” said Raben, who hails from Ridgway, in Gallatin County, near the Ohio and Wabash rivers.

“It was the same with corn. Corn is now a losing proposition, no matter what your yield; you are not going to make any money.”

Shortly before the Nov. 20 Farm Assets Conference, Trump made another declaration of farmers’ patriotism and willingness to sacrifice short-term profitability in exchange for allegedly stronger and fairer future trade policies. While Raben said he agrees in concept with the statement, as a farmer he is finding it increasingly harder to bite the bullet as trade wars grind on at his and other producers’ expense.

“We producers mostly think that what the President is doing is the right thing. We can be patriots, but sooner or later, if this keeps up, we will go broke. Hopefully he can get things straightened out and things can go back to halfway normal.

“The new trilateral USMCA (U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement) has not been ratified to replace NAFTA, and things have to get moving,” Raben said, the week before Trump came to a tentative agreement on USMCA with Canadian and Mexican leadership during the recent G-20 Summit in Argentina. The agreement still awaits approval from the legislative branches of the three governments.

Raben is cautiously optimistic the Trump administration will work out a new trade agreement with the Chinese before the Brazilian soybean harvest is complete, but questions whether it will provide a good enough market push to boost U.S. soybean prices higher anytime soon.

“Having just come from Brazil, I know that China is positioning themselves for a lot of soybean purchases. The crops in Brazil right now look great, though there is a lot of growing yet to be done. China will buy from Brazil as much as they can, and they really don’t want to buy from the U.S. at this point,” he said.

Raben said he had yet to receive his first Market Facilitation Program check from the federal government, as of Nov. 20. MFP payments are direct, emergency USDA checks sent to farmers in order to help compensate for farm revenue losses associated with the trade wars between the U.S. and other nations in 2018.

He also expressed concern about Congress’ inability to pass a new farm bill before the midterm elections changed the look of the House of Representatives and the 2018 legislative calendar ticked away. He said failure to pass a 2018 farm bill by Jan. 1 would further complicate negotiations and suspend many programs farmers rely upon.

“It is a big concern. Not only for farmers and programs they rely on, but USGC, like poultry and meat groups, get FMD/MAP (USDA’s Foreign Market Development and Market Access programs) money from farm bill authorization. If you don’t get that, you have to start gearing back and shutting offices down because you can’t afford them,” Raben explained.

As for the plunge in commodity prices and bleak outlook for farm profitability – barring external forces such as improved export trade flow – in 2019, Raben said like other farmers, he is learning to cut both household and operational expenses in order to mitigate losses to his overall income.

“You learn to cut back on your lifestyle. You watch your repair bills closer, and you don’t do some of the things you did before. You make sure every gallon of diesel you use is productive,” he said.

“You have to conserve the amount of money you spend. Because of our rotation, we will plant more corn than beans next year. But if I could, I would still plant more beans because they are cheaper to produce and to harvest.”