HENDERSON, Ky. — Lois Book Harper has lived in the same area in Henderson, Kentucky, for her almost 80 years of life. She and her late husband bought the Windy Hill Farm in 1970.
“I can’t wait to get out there and start seeing the plants come up out of the ground," she said. "I mean, that’s what I’ve always done, and I love it. It’s like, in your blood."
At one point, they owned about 500 acres of farmland across Henderson County. Now, Harper said she’s down to about 85 acres and looking to downsize more.
“I’m in the process of selling it; that’s what all that is,” she said, pointing to a stack of plots on her table.
The farmers who rent her land used to alternate corn and soybeans, but because of the weather in recent years, that has stopped.
“This will be the fourth year of soybeans, if we even get to do that, because of what’s going on with the tariff war," Harper said. "We don’t know what’s going to happen with that."
Retaliatory tariffs from China could significantly reduce U.S. soybean and corn exports, lowering the prices farmers can get for their commodities. Harper, who also taught math for 30 years and had a career in financial advising, said she’s not a fan.
“There's not going to be a crop for anybody to send ours to, so what is that going to do to the cost? And how much does it cost to grow it? A lot more," Harper said. "It’s scarce. Things are scarce."“There's not going to be a crop for anybody to send ours to, so what is that going to do to the cost? And how much does it cost to grow it? A lot more," Harper said. "It’s scarce. Things are scarce."
"It ought to be actually causing problems and worries with everybody that is a consumer, and that’s everybody. All people are consumers. They don’t realize how much farm products they use.”
One farmer she works with is Jim Davis, who is also the outgoing president of Independence Bank in Henderson County, and an ag lender.
“I was doing the ag lending for one out of every five acres in Henderson County,” he said.
He has about 300 acres of farmland but said he farms for fun.
“I don’t play golf," he said. "I don’t do some of those other things. I go till the soil when I get a day off."
When it comes to challenges affecting western Kentucky farmers, Davis said he’s not so worried about the weather.
“My biggest concern is current commodity pricing,” he said. “What we saw a lot last year was a lot of guys [who] farmed the same number of acres, but they may have made half or one-third of the money they did in the couple years prior to that."
"The margins have gotten really thin. They are even thinner, probably, for 2025.”
Davis said farmers in Kentucky and across the U.S. always bear the brunt of foreign economic policy.
“The western Kentucky farmer, and all farmers, are pretty much at the mercy of the worldwide supply and demand of whatever commodity we’re selling.”“Corn had rallied about 40 cents just prior to the announcement of the tariffs, and two days after the announcement of the tariffs, it fell the 40 cents it had rallied this spring,” he said. “The western Kentucky farmer, and all farmers, are pretty much at the mercy of the worldwide supply and demand of whatever commodity we’re selling.”
Because of economic challenges, both Davis and Harper said the future of farming could look much different.
“Every farm that’s tillable has already got a farmer on it, and that farmer’s probably got two other guys wanting it that are already in the business,” Davis said. “Probably guys like me and part-timers will fade out sooner or later.”
Harper said she sees, “big, big, big business farmers."
"That’s all high tech, all computerized," she said. "Not a lot of what you would call ‘farmers.’”
But as long as she still has her farm, there will always be some semblance of how things used to be.
According to a kycorn.org study, tariffs from China could reduce U.S. soybean exports by 14 to 16 million metric tons annually, a 51.8% drop, and corn exports by 2.2 million metric tons, an 84.3% drop.
