How an Iowa farmer cut back as fuel, fertilizer and health care costs soared

Aaron Lehman is harvesting corn and soybeans on his Iowa farm using a combine that’s almost as old as his 26-year-old son, Benjamin.

The machine has already outlived its typical 15- to 20-year lifespan, and eventually it’ll need to be replaced.

“But we’re not going to do that,” Lehman said. “We put off that decision a while ago when we saw all these other costs going up.”

Lehman, 58, farms roughly 500 acres between Des Moines and Ames that have been in his family since 1869. His corn, soybeans and oats mostly go to feed and processing mills.

But he has barely turned a profit since 2023, he said, leaving the family increasingly reliant on his wife’s income as a physician assistant. Lehman has cut his farm salary by one third and stopped making about $7,500 in annual retirement contributions.

He blames rising operating costs, including higher fuel and fertilizer prices, as well as uncertainty about foreign markets due to shifting tariff policies.

“I grew up in probably the darkest times,” said Lehman, who was in junior high school during an economic crisis in the 1980s.“That’s the last time you can recall conversations like what we’re having now.”

Lehman, who is president of the Iowa Farmers Union, has always supported Democrats, even as his state shifted to the right over the past decade. What’s different this midterm cycle, he said, is that more of his farming colleagues are ready to back Democratic candidates.

The 1,100-member union generally sticks to policy and advisory roles but this year it endorsed Democrats in all five federal races — four House and one Senate — for the first time in recent memory. Republicans hold all five seats.

Lehman said farmers showed “a tremendous amount of disgust” over President Donald Trump’s decision to lift tariffs on foreign beef to be sold at reduced prices in U.S. grocery stores.

Financial snapshot

Profession: Farmer

Age: 58

Family student-loan payments: About $16,000 per year

Biggest financial concerns: Diesel costs and tariff policies

There’s also “a lot of confusion about trade policies and when we’re going to get fair trade,” Lehman said. “And a lot of people are bewildered about the Iran war and why didn’t we plan this out before we got there.”

He’s backing Josh Turek for Senate, Sarah Trone Garriott for the House, and Rob Sand for governor — all Democrats.

The economic pressures shaping Lehman’s politics extend well beyond the farm. Last month, a KFF/Associated Press poll found that as the midterms approach, rural voters are feeling squeezed financially and are facing higher health care costs. Lehman’s family is among them.

He and his wife, Nicole, bought insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. After pandemic-era subsidies expired this year, their monthly premium nearly tripled, jumping from about $500 to $1,400, he said.

To offset the increase, Lehman’s wife, who used to help run their farm, went from a contract role as a physician assistant to a full-time job in the same role because it offered health insurance. Their monthly premium is about the same it was before the ACA increases, he said.

“We’re very grateful for the opportunity,” Lehman said of his wife’s job. “But it does take flexibility away from the farm.”

Nicole went back to school to be a physician assistant after she was laid off from a research job. The career change brought a relatively lucrative job but also student-loan debt: At 58, she is paying roughly $16,000 a year toward her loans.

The family has also put off buying a new vehicle because of rising costs. They’re holding onto their 2017 Ford Fusion, which has nearly 200,000 miles on it, to avoid taking on a car payment.

They cut some streaming services, celebrate family events at home rather than at restaurants, don’t get coffee while in town, and limit trips to Colorado, where their daughter lives, to once a year.

“We’re trying to cut back in every way we can,” he said.

On the farm, fertilizer is Lehman’s second-highest expense. Prices have gone up about 35 percent in the last year, from $700 a ton to $950. They spiked last spring after the war with Iran started, he said.

Midwest diesel prices have risen about 71 percent since last year. On busy harvest days, Lehman said, that can add $1,000 to the farm’s daily fuel costs compared with last year.

Looking back to the economic crisis farmers faced in the 1980s, Lehman said he fears a repeat of what he considers its worst consequence: a generation of young people abandoning farming or deciding never to enter it.

The Lehmans’ son, Benjamin, lives at a separate house on the farm and helps run operations, while also working as an agronomist for a nonprofit.

The family plans for him to eventually take ownership, but questions remain.

“We constantly worry about it,” Lehman said about the planned succession. “It’s challenging in good times to make that happen. It’s much more challenging in times like this.”