BARN TALK
The Unfiltered Voice of Rural America
Issue #33 · November 11, 2026
|
|
|
Hey folks, Deere is closing a plant that has been running for 115 years in our end of Iowa, the farm bill just got harder to pass, and a banker in North Carolina once called a rice plan the dumbest he had ever heard.
In this issue
| Two Iowa plants closing Deere will shut Ottumwa and Clarion by 2029 |
| The farm bill gets harder SNAP money and E15 are tied together |
| Every market card is red crude fell the hardest at more than $13 |
| A plan built to lose money what a rice farmer told his lender |
| Four more bites a late health fund, data center jobs, a settlement and a drought map |
|
This Week's Episode
Watch on YouTube · Listen on Spotify · or keep scrolling to read it.
|
|
|
|
Live Event Countdown
We're at 3,947 of 10,000 subscribers. Help us get there.
Hit 10,000 and we throw a live event at the barn. Subscribers get first crack at tickets.
|
|
John Deere Is Closing Two Iowa Plants, Including One That Is 115 Years Old
Ottumwa Works in 1969. Ottumwa officials count about 400 jobs and more than $30 million in payroll now. Photo: Michael Lemberger Collection, via Fortepan Iowa.
Last Wednesday Deere said it will close Ottumwa Works in southeast Iowa and end manufacturing at its Hagie plant in Clarion. Windrower production moves from Ottumwa to Des Moines by the end of fiscal 2027, round balers follow in 2028, and the Ottumwa factory shuts by fiscal 2029. Hagie STS sprayers move to Thibodaux, Louisiana, starting in fiscal 2028, and Clarion goes dark by fiscal 2029.
Why Deere says it is happening
Deere says it is running far below normal volumes because of the downturn in the farm economy, and that at normal volumes about 300 people would be affected. September tractor sales fell 16.4 percent from a year ago and combine sales fell 10.9 percent, per the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
The same company is also hiring
Less than a week before the closing news, Deere said it expects to hire more than 400 people across its factories and call back more than 275 to Waterloo. Every worker laid off at Waterloo, the Quad Cities, Ottumwa and Dubuque has now been asked back. Clarion has about 2,770 people in it, and Hagie has been there since the 1940s.
|
From the Barn
Deere says this year is the bottom of the downturn, then schedules a closure for 2029. When a company puts a date that far out on a plant, it has told you what it expects the next three years to look like. A town of 2,770 loses more than paychecks when the plant goes. It loses the volunteers, the tax base and the kids who stay.
|
|
|
The Farm Bill Just Got Harder To Pass, And It Comes Down To Food Stamps And E15
Democrats won control of Congress last week, including a run of races in farm country, and they take over the House and Senate Ag Committees in January. That leaves this Congress a short window to finish a farm bill.
The sticking point is SNAP. Senator Boozman of Arkansas has called a one year delay in the state cost share for SNAP the final offer from Republicans and the White House. On Election Day, Iowa's Senator Grassley said some compromise on food stamps may be needed to reach the 60 votes the bill requires.
By the numbers
| 60 votes is what the bill needs to clear the Senate. |
| $18 billion is the two year SNAP cost share Grassley called irresponsible. |
| $14 billion is what Grassley says E15 would put in farmers' pockets if the bill passes. |
What happens if it stalls
Grassley weighed those two numbers out loud, calling the SNAP deal irresponsible while pointing out that a passed bill is the best chance at E15. Ag policy consultant Mary Kay Thatcher told AgWeb she expects an extension instead, given the thin margin on the House bill and the SNAP fight.
|
From the Barn
Whoever holds the gavel, a farm bill has to work for both sides. You can't plan a crop around a bill that may not exist by spring. Plan around the programs and payments already on the books, and treat anything new as a bonus.
|
|
|
|
Partner With Us
Want to reach rural America?
Barn Talk goes out to farmers, ranchers, and working folks who actually buy things. If that sounds like your customer, let's talk.
[email protected] →
|
|
This week's numbers
|
Corn (Dec '26)
$4.41 1/2 /bu
▼ $0.06 1/4 on the week
|
|
Soybeans (Nov '26)
$11.89 /bu
▼ $0.33 1/4 on the week
|
|
|
Wheat (Dec '26)
$5.91 1/4 /bu
▼ $0.12 1/4 on the week
|
|
Live Cattle (Dec '26)
$214.05 /cwt
▼ $6.90 on the week
|
|
|
Lean Hogs (Dec '26)
$53.53 /cwt
▼ $5.34 on the week
|
|
Crude Oil (Dec '26)
$90.92 /bbl
▼ $13.15 on the week
|
Tork's Picks
|
Bitcoin
$75,633 USD
▼ $1,590 on the week
|
|
Beyond Meat (BYND)
$5.87 /share
▼ $1.04 on the week
|
This isn't financial advice. I'm just a farmer with an opinion.
|
Tork's Take
Every number on this board is lower than a week ago. Corn gave back six cents, beans gave back 33 and wheat lost 12. Cattle are down another $6.90 and hogs another $5.34. Crude fell more than $13 to about $91 a barrel, and that is the one number you can use right now. If you have fuel to buy for spring, this is the week to price some of it. On grain, selling into a slide never feels good, so if you need cash flow, sell it in pieces and quit waiting on a bounce.
|
|
|
|
Ever sat across from your banker and told him the plan loses money on purpose? Tommy Wheeler did, and the number he gave was about $250 an acre. His plan was to grow rice in North Carolina, where nobody had grown it at scale in roughly a century.
Tommy spent 27 years in NASCAR, starting at Hendrick Motorsports at $12 an hour and finishing as general manager of Roush Fenway Racing. He bought coastal ground for duck hunting and farmed corn to feed the ponds, which is what sent him to rice.
“If I can lose $250 with rice, I'm going to double in size for the same level of loss.” |
Corn was already costing him about $500 an acre. His lender called it the dumbest business plan he had ever heard, then said yes because Tommy had the cash to cover it. Tommy figures the lender was right about the balance sheet. He was building something to outlast him.
It started with 3 acres of heirloom Carolina Gold seed. The closest buyer was 18 hours away over the Appalachians, so he built the only rice mill in North Carolina. When restaurants shut in 2020, the rice went out one cup at a time, bagged by hand, and he calls it the year they sold out twice. By his own count the loss ran closer to $500 an acre than $250.
Look at it now. That rice feeds the Denver Broncos, the Indianapolis Colts, the White House kitchen and Disney World, and it sits on grocery shelves across the Southeast and on North Carolina school lunch trays. I doubt he is losing money anymore. When you own the mill and the market, you set the price.
Got an idea your banker called dumb? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
|
|
Four things that caught our eye
| 01 |
The $50 billion rural health fund missed its own deadlineFederal officials were supposed to tell states their 2027 awards by October 31. They sent a mass email on October 30 saying they found an additional administrative process requirement. Each state's $100 million base is still coming, but the competitive part is on hold. A rural hospital plans payroll around dates, and an email does not cover a payroll. |
|
| 02 |
Data center builders are training their own workersA site can put thousands of people to work for a few years and keep only a few hundred once the doors open. Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Oracle are partnering with community colleges to train the technicians who stay. One Oregon grad drives less than 10 minutes to the data center in his hometown. If you have a kid who likes working with their hands, ask your local college what it teaches. |
|
| 03 |
Corteva's $85 million settlement got a preliminary okayThe class covers more than 100,000 farmers who bought certain crop protection products between October 2018 and May 2026. Plaintiffs' lawyers say the figure is about a tenth of the damages their expert calculated, and Corteva denies wrongdoing. Corteva also settled separately with the FTC and agreed to end its loyalty programs. A final hearing is still ahead. |
|
| 04 |
Nearly half the Lower 48 is still in droughtRain helped the Plains and the Four Corners, while dryness grew in the lower Mississippi Valley and the lower Midwest. In Iowa, soil temperatures stayed in the upper 50s in late October, and Iowa State Extension warns that putting anhydrous on that early risks losing the nitrogen. |
|
|
|
Barn Talk Poll
Where do you land?
Are you a hunter?
| A. Year-round |
|
B. Here and there |
|
| C. Not really |
|
D. Used to be |
|
|
Did You Know?
Iowa is home to about 24.7 million hogs and pigs, roughly a third of the 74.3 million in the whole country, per USDA's September 1 Hogs and Pigs report. Minnesota is a distant second.
|
|
Word of the Week
| ROTATION |
Planting different crops on the same ground in a set order from year to year, such as corn then soybeans, so disease, pests and soil nutrients do not build up or run down in one direction. |
|
|
|
|
If one of these stories landed in your county, hit reply and tell us where. We read every one, and the best ones end up in the next issue.
We'll see you in the barn.
Sawyer & Tork
Hosts, Barn Talk · joinbarntalk.com
|
|
Know someone who needs this?
Help us reach 10,000 and earn your spot at the live event.
Read online · © 2026 Barn Talk · joinbarntalk.com · This week's episode: #EP225
|
|
