LACROSSE, Ind. – A top Indiana agriculture official is trying to think positively about the concerns farmers have about issues ranging from tariffs on foreign imports to mass deportations brought on by the new White House administration.

Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Don Lamb said one of his concerns is the trade war started recently by President Donald Trump and its potential to lower demand from other countries for U.S.-made products such as farm commodities.

He said the impact in Indiana from countries retaliating with tariffs of their own on U.S. imports could be measurable given the current struggling economy in agriculture and that 25 percent of farm commodities in the state are exported.

“We’re already looking at a negative cash flow going into a year of planting, especially corn and soybeans and then anything like a tariff that’s going to depress that market further. It’s tough for a farmer to shoulder all of that himself,” he said.

Lamb said he’s keeping his fingers crossed the benefit to farmers from the type of fair trade the president is trying to bring about from the tariffs will exceed any losses producers might have to endure during what he hopes is not a long trade war.

“I’m kind of trusting somewhere along the line there will be something that might trickle back to the farmers,” he said.

Lamb said the amount of labor in agriculture is already tightening because of the threat migrants feel about being deported from the ongoing federal crackdown on immigration.

If existing rules allowing migrants to work legally in the U.S. are made stricter, “that could have a real negative effect,” he said.

Lamb called the labor issue a “big, big deal” and one the leaders in agriculture are going to have to take an even more vocal stance against.

“We got to have some sort of relief for this, and we need that labor force,” he said.

Lamb said a major concern for poultry producers is combating the current strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which has claimed the lives of nearly 8 million chickens, ducks and turkeys in the state this year.

He said the state’s poultry industry wants a vaccine developed for the current strain of the virus, but how soon that will come about is not known.

In the meantime, Lamb said poultry producers whose contaminated flocks were destroyed are trying to hang on to their workforces until the six-to-eight-week decontamination period is completed and they’re back in business.

“The pressure these guys are under is pretty great,” he said.

Fortunately, Lamb said the worst of the bird flu spread appears to be over for now since wild birds flying over and spreading the disease are nearing the end of their annual migrating season.

Another issue he addressed is the potential impact on agriculture from the new “Make America Healthy Again” movement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Initally, Lamb said he wasn’t excited about the appointment because of Kennedy’s desire to curb the use of oil seeds in cooking to reduce the consumption of saturated fats.

“That’s kind of hard for a soybean farmer to take but the bottom line is he’s the guy now and we might as well work with him,” he said.

Lamb said his position now is for agriculture to play a role in developing healthier products like a soybean that contains less saturated fat.

“Let’s capitalize on that. There’s no reason not to grasp onto that as far as I can see,” he said.

Lamb was the featured speaker March 20 during the annual chili supper hosted by La Porte County Farm Bureau in LaCrosse.

La Porte County Farm Bureau President Mark Parkman, who raises primarily grain and cattle, said it’s not usual for uncertainty to be felt within the industry during a change in the administration at the federal level. 

“Mr. Trump has been relatively favorable to ag in the past, but you never know,” he said. 

Lamb is a second-generation farmer raising corn, popcorn, seed soybeans and seed wheat in Boone County with help from his father, brother and nephews.

He was appointed as the ISDA director in March 2023 by then-Gov. Eric Holcomb, and then reappointed to the position recently by current Gov. Mike Braun.