Farmers juggle uncertainty
Change is constant in farming — but especially this year. Tariffs on U.S. imports add to the long list of factors beyond farmers’ control — including weather, growing conditions and markets — leaving local growers with plenty to worry about.
Recently, price increases on “inputs” growers need to raise or sell a crop have had the biggest impact for La Conner-area farmers. Swanson Family Farm reports being“hammered” on organic nitrogen fertilizer, the contents of which are mined in South America. Soil mix that Hedlin Farms uses in their greenhouses is set to increase by 25%. Cardboard boxes have also become more expensive for Pioneer Potatoes, said owner John Thulen, noting the higher costs are tied to wood fiber sourced from Canada.
“I just can’t keep up.
– Dave Hedlin
It’s like playing a giant game of whack a mole.”
More worrisome: the disruption of major international agricultural markets. “Everything that happens in the commodity belt affects us here,” Dave Hedlin explained.
China, once the dominant buyer of U.S. soybeans, has not bought any U.S. soybeans this year, according to an American Soybean Association news release. “We’ve gone from a major exporting of soybeans to China to zero, and if it stays that way, about a third of U.S. soybean farmers need to look for other work,” Hedlin said.
Thulen said Midwest farmers are searching for more profitable options, which could mean fewer soybeans and more potatoes nationwide. He noted that when a major commodity flow is disrupted, “it ripples across the other crops.”
The 20% retaliatory tariff Beijing placed on U.S. imports has hit more than soybean producers. Overall U.S. agricultural exports to China fell 53% in the first seven months of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
Hedlin and Thulen ship their crops to seed companies without knowing much about how the product moves around the world.
A seed company employee, who spoke off the record, said seed grown in Skagit County, shipped to a European company, and then sold back into the U.S. can trigger reciprocal tariffs. If American farmers have to pay a 15-30% tariff on Skagit-grown seeds sold by international seed companies, growers like Hedlin and Thulen could eventually be affected. The cabbage, cauliflower, beet and spinach seed grown near La Conner are contracted in advance and Hedlin’s 2026 cabbage seed crop is already in the ground.
Farm equipment takes a hit too
Thulen said he hasn’t purchased a new tractor in eight years — “and it wasn’t very big” — but knows other farmers who have paid tariffs on new potato diggers.
“We generally have seen price increases of 5–15%, in many cases cushioned by the manufacturer,” said Mark Visser, sales manager at Farmers Equipment in Burlington. Case International Harvester implements at his dealership arrived before the tariffs took effect and remain at the same price, but Visser said a round of price increases expected over the next 12 to 24 months will likely make used equipment more appealing.
Many dealers are working their way through excess inventories accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when high demand plus low interest rates created a backlog in orders. Now inventory is high and demand is lower due to high interest rates and tariffs.
“Businesses like certainty, and we’ve had a lot of uncertainty to digest,” Visser said. The lack of clarity, he added, has investors and farmers weighing whether to buy now before prices climb or wait in hopes that costs will drop.
“I just can’t keep up,” Hedlin said. “It’s like playing a giant game of whack a mole.”
Anne Basye is a freelance writer based in greater La Conner.
