Cost and input availability are causing an Ohio farmer to pull back his corn acres this year.

Nathan Eckel farms in the Western Lake Erie Basin.  “We’re going to be heavy on beans this year, just because of input prices,” he says.  “I spent the same amount of money on nitrogen this year and got half the product.”

But, he tells Brownfield the rising costs are also impacting how he’s feeding his cattle.  “We were doing mostly shelled corn and dry hay,” he says.  “We made a decision to go to more of a forage diet, trying to play off these cover crops that we’re doing and really use a lot of forages.”

He says other feed costs have been on the rise. 

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