NEW ULM — At a time when the farming forecast appears dark with rising input costs, a couple rays of light are shining through the clouds.

According to the USDA, fertilizer and nitrogen costs rose by a quarter to a third in the past couple weeks. Diesel prices have also risen sharply.

Bipartisan bills introduced in March by U.S. senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD) and U.S. representatives Brad Finstad (R-MN) and Dusty Johnson (R-SD) would provide more reliable information about fertilizer and fertilizer product costs.

The Fertilizer Transparency Act would create mandatory price reporting structure to wholesalers, retailers and farmers of all sizes with comparable levels of market information on fertilizer costs.

The act includes a study on the concentration of the U.S. fertilizer industry to investigate potential monopolies.

A companion bill, the Homegrown Fertilizer Act would create USDA grant and loan programs to expand domestic fertilizer production and improve fertilizer storage capacity for stronger supply chains at home and less dependence on global markets.

Proponents argue that a few companies control a big part of key fertilizer inputs, making transparency necessary for fair market access.

“That’s fantastic. It would be great to have it,” said Minnesota Soybean Association At Large Governing Board Member Bob Worth of Lake Benton.

“Rising input costs are hurting us. It started three years ago when inflation took off on all our inputs. Now, prices we’re getting for corn, wheat and soybeans is going down.”

The act would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to publish fertilizer prices weekly on its website, ensuring producers have access to timely, accurate market data.

Worth, who farms with his son, said they sold about 230 acres of land for $11,000 an acre last fall.

“We’re downsizing a little bit. My son will rent some of my land,” he said. “I know that sometime, farming will be profitable again. Farming is a great life. My son and I have been farming together since the mid 1990s.”

He said crop insurance improved last year.

“I hope farmers took advantage of that. Target prices were up in the Big Beautiful Bill. We may get a pretty good payment from the government this fall, if we can make it there,” said Worth. “Right now, we need more rain. We need a couple inches, not just tenths of an inch at a time.”

Brown County farmer Justin Remus, who farms with his brother, said the recent bi-partisan bills are what is needed.

“They’re steps in the right direction for more market consistency and sustainability,” he said. “We need to get more of the farm industry at home, managing things on our own terms for more sustainability. It’s a shame we out-source so many things. We’ve got big stockpiles of liquid natural gas we don’t utilize as a nitrogen source. What we’re dealing with now was caused by using the cheapest way to do things. It’s take some American ingenuity to solve this.”

Remus said there are crops out there, other than corn and soybeans like oats, wheat, seasoned sweet corn and dry field peas that don’t need as much fertilizer and nitrogen, that we don’t have access to.

“We’ve drastically reduced the amount of nitrogen we’re using this year. I think most farmers around here are doing that too,” he said.