CropLife Retail Week: Diesel Shock, Wet Grain Costs, and the Shifting Ag Retail Value Proposition

In this episode of CropLife Retail Week, CropLife Editor Eric Sfiligoj and Amy Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply break down diesel spikes and whether state fuel tax holidays deliver meaningful relief. Also, Asmus reports on the changing business model for ag retailers and increasing future value.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj:
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj with the CropLife Media Group, here again with Amy Asmus from Asmus Farm Supply. Amy, how are you doing today?

Amy Asmus:
I’m doing wonderful. Wishing the sun would come out.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah, I was going to say, I know weather is—we’ll talk about weather later in this broadcast. But yes, I know there is something that, this time of year, as we’re getting into harvest season, is a big concern. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, stuff doesn’t get out of the field, which makes no one happy.

Amy Asmus:
Right.

Eric Sfiligoj:
But speaking of stuff getting out of the field, of course, one of the things that growers and retailers—and everyone in agriculture, I think—uses to move stuff around is fuel, be that gasoline or diesel.

I know gas prices—gasoline prices in my area—have been coming down. But diesel, the other day, Amy, as I got off the freeway, I was on one of the major interstate routes getting off at an exit, and I noticed diesel at that station here in Ohio was $7.39 a gallon, which I think is the highest I’ve ever seen it.

And I know here in my home state of Ohio, just the other day, the legislature passed what they’re calling a 90-day gasoline tax holiday. So they will no longer be taxing gasoline sales through, I guess, the end of the year.

From what I understand, that’s going to save about 38 to 40 cents a gallon, depending on the type of fuel you’re talking about, and should save consumers and farmers a lot of money. But I guess it’s going to cost my state of Ohio over $700 million in revenue through the end of the year, and that’s revenue that’s used to keep the roads looking good in my state of Ohio.

So I’m not sure if other states are looking at that, but all this begs a good question. I know as I visited with ag retailers over the summer, a lot of the ones that I was talking to, the cooperatives in particular, mentioned that they had seen an increase in demand for things like renewable diesel this year versus prior years.

So again, I’m trying to connect the dots and put two and two together. Are these two things connected? And what’s the outlook for alternative fuel sources as we move through 2026 and into 2027? What are you hearing?

Amy Asmus:
Oh, that’s a good question. That’s a good question.

Historically, ethanol plays that role with the oil prices and stuff. And just about the time it gets to the gap where it’s going to make a difference, then prices come down.

So it’s a volatile market. Everybody’s going to try to protect their space as much as they can. Depending on what is causing the hike in prices, if that has any control over those people that control the oil or not is yet to be seen.

So, you know, hopefully—I’m all for biofuels. But there seems to be this historic fight between who has the upper hand and where the pricing lands when push comes to shove.

Amy Asmus:
Yeah. That’s interesting. One thing I did look up to see if I had a gas tax relief, and some of the candidates have been throwing it around, but there’s nothing really proposed at this time.

Iowa’s gas tax is 32.5 cents per gallon. And so some of the things I’ve been hearing thrown around is like 50% relief on that. So that’s 16.25 cents per gallon.

The return on that, if somebody would buy 10,000 gallons—for easy math—is $1,625, which sounds okay, right? But diesel going from $4 to $6 or even $7, as you proposed, the cost of that on 10,000 gallons is $20,000 to $30,000.

So it seems like that tax relief is almost non-material when you look at the whole scope of what the hike in the cost of it is.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah.

Amy Asmus:
So, good thought, good thought. But it’s a Band-Aid.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Like I said, now that Ohio’s done this, I’m just going to be curious. I’ll be watching the news over the next couple of weeks to see if, as we’re in an election year, I know that there’s a lot of incentive to offer up anything—any kind of relief anywhere in the general economy.

So I imagine the appetite for this, like you say, may not be overly strong, but I suspect we’ll be hearing a lot of pitches and proposals by candidates that, “Hey, let’s give everybody relief at the pump.” So we’ll see what happens.

Amy Asmus:
Yeah, we’ll see what happens. Unfortunately, that relief may not come until after elections, and nobody’s in place to help those promises until the next year. And that’s a little late for our growers this fall.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah. So right now, everybody, I think, is going to have to just deal with, like you say, higher prices this year as they try to get things out of the field here in 2026.

Well, since we’re talking about equipment, I did have some news to share. I got word that two of the larger equipment associations—the North American Equipment Dealers Association and the Associated Equipment Distributors—have announced plans to formally merge.

The new organization will be called the Associated Equipment Dealers, AED. And actually, they say they’re doing this to help strengthen the voice of the industry for their members with folks in Washington, D.C., and around the country when it comes to getting positive or better legislation for their members.

I’m curious. I know in these economic times, which are a little tougher, that’s when I tend to see these mergers of trade groups happening. So what do you think? Are more in the offing as we move through this year and next year?

Amy Asmus:
I think definitely a lot of the associations are having conversations around it. Is it better to merge? Is it better to partner? How do we do it?

I know, as the members of such associations get squeezed a little bit more and more in these economic times, some of those membership costs really are scrutinized. So an association who wants to continue needs to ask themselves, “What is that return on investment that I give back to my members?”

Of course, you know, I’m a lover of the Agricultural Retailers Association, biggest fan. And we have had those conversations. Advocacy is one of our biggest benefits. But again, when we advocate for the industry, everybody wins—not just our members—because we don’t go to the Hill and say, “Well, can you do this, but only for those people that pay a membership to the Agricultural Retailers Association?”

So that is a very big benefit of some of these associations, but it’s really not exclusive to their members. So what is it that these associations provide their members so that they can continue to justify that expenditure in their budgets?

Eric Sfiligoj:
And I also wonder about some of the regional associations as well. I know there have been efforts over the last 10 or 12 years to kind of merge formally or partner with one another for trade shows and annual events and that kind of thing.

But like you say, when they’re talking about the membership base, that helps increase the membership base, in theory.

Amy Asmus:
Right. And we do with ARA—we have our wonderful partners at the state level with the state agribusiness associations in each state.

But that, too, becomes a dual membership for all agribusinesses in Iowa. I would pay a membership in ARA’s membership. So what is the value of local, in-state representation at the state level? And what’s the value at the federal level?

Because there are actually two different playing fields, and you kind of have to have a voice in both.

So time will tell. But I do know that associations are looking at that value. What can they bring their members to justify that expenditure of the membership?

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah. Well, it’ll be interesting because, as you mentioned, ARA, I know there are annual meetings coming up here beginning of December, and I know that’s only about two months away. So we’ll be there before you know it.

In Austin, Texas, I believe. Folks, if you like country music, please join us. Amy and I will be there.

But yeah, I’m sure that this conversation will come up, at least in casual conversation, as we’re doing cocktail hours and other interpersonal events when we’re at that meeting.

Amy Asmus:
Yeah. I was just at that ARA meeting last week.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Oh yeah, that’s right.

Amy Asmus:
Yeah. You know, we talked a lot about what are some of the themes that we need to be addressing in Washington, D.C.

But really, my favorite part of ARA is really the networking and the conversations that we can have over a bourbon, for me, and what’s going on in the industry and how do we see the trends and what’s going on.

So there are more benefits besides advocacy. And I understand you’re going to have my friend Darren on next week. And so, if anybody’s thinking about going to the annual meeting and is not quite decided, tune in next week and Darren and Eric will give you everything you need to know.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yes, that’ll be Darren Copp, the CEO and president of ARA, and yes, he will be here. We will be talking about all things going on in D.C. and across agriculture and retail.

And then, of course, yes, we will definitely preview what’s going to happen at the annual meeting.

So, well, speaking of ag retailers, this is that time of year. Amy, I know I’m knee-deep myself in our CropLife 100. I’m collecting the survey forms from ag retailers—the major ag retailers across the country.

And I’ve got to say, I mean, I’m digging through all the numbers, and most of them are not surprising me. But there was one longtime member of the CropLife 100. I think they’ve been—I mean, we’ve been doing it now for 43 years as of this year.

And I think this was a company that had been involved in the CropLife 100 under different names, but as a cooperative. They’d been there for about 30 years.

And this year, they sent me back their form, did not fill it out, and just said they had exited agronomy. They had sold their agronomy outlets, but they were maintaining their grain, fuel and feed operations.

So I hadn’t run into that before. So I’m just curious, is that something we’ve seen before in ag retail? And is this maybe something that I should keep an eye on—and also our viewers—as we move through into 2027?

Amy Asmus:
I think right now, we’ve done a lot of talking in the past weeks and months about retailers really looking at what is their place in the industry.

And I think what we all look at is, where is our value proposition?

So I’m a unique retailer who does just crop protection, a little bit of liquid plant nutrition, some seed and some seed treatment. But I’m not into the big majors like the grain and the energy and the feed, like a lot of my co-op partners are.

So I think they’re looking at what needs to be looked at and saying, “Where is our value proposition? What can we bring our growers that is of a value that they will continue to pay for?”

So as we’re looking at that, I think a real key question that everybody needs to ask themselves is: What value will growers pay for when products, recommendations and data become increasingly more available through technology sources?

And where are we going to go?

Obviously, technology is not going to gather grain, grind it and get it to you for your livestock. So that would be a pretty safe value proposition.

But what we need to do is, how do we create the possibility that our growers see us as the trusted source and not technology? And what do we want to look at moving forward?

And I think this is an example of someone who’s looked at that, has asked the questions, and has actually acted on it.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah, it’s just, to me, it was rather interesting because I know for a while there, as I’ve talked to cooperatives over the last dozen years or so, it seemed like they were trying to be everything. Again, with the member ownership, grower ownership part of the equation, they tried to be the one-stop shop for everything that their members needed.

And in this instance, somebody stepped back and they said, “Well, you know, we can’t do everything for everybody. So let’s just focus on the things that are doing the best for us.”

And I just thought it was kind of interesting, the mindset on that, because it’s a little different than anything I’ve heard in, like I say, the last few years that I’ve talked to cooperatives.

Amy Asmus:
Yeah. I think a lot more businesses will be asking themselves that question and we’ll be coming up with some unique solutions for them. And we’ll be seeing that over the next couple of years in ag retail.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay. Interesting.

All right. Well then, let’s end this if we can. We did this at the top of the program. We talked a little about weather, and I know that as we record this, I just got the note from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, and they were talking about the ending stocks for crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat.

And they mentioned that for corn stocks, 787 million bushels are currently being stored on farms. And that’s an increase of 22% from this time last year. And they mentioned that soybean stocks had dropped about 3%.

And I know you’ve been walking some of the fields there in Iowa, looking at corn and soybeans. So what do you have to report on the state of the crop and how weather is—or isn’t—cooperating?

Amy Asmus:
Yeah. So I’ve been, all season long—I should be knocking on wood—all season long I’ve been saying we’re in the garden spot. It’s great. We got rain when we needed to.

Now the rain can just go away for about three weeks. Can I?

Eric Sfiligoj:
Three weeks? Yeah.

Amy Asmus:
Right. For about three weeks, we’ve been out looking at some fields. We’ve had some soybean fields that have been ready to become ripe here for a week or two.

We have been wet and cold and cloudy, and so we’re not able to get our equipment into the field and get those crops out.

So what is that doing for some of our crops?

I was out in soybeans, and we’ve heard of several different things happening.

First of all, purple beans. Purple beans. People are like, “We’re opening the pods and the beans are purple.”

That’s actually a pathogen—Cercospora—that is more known for the leaf blight stage, but it will cause the purple on the beans.

The other things we’ve seen are beans that are not purple, but beans that are actually looking like they’re rotting or molding. So they’ll be black or brown.

The ones we found the other day had like a white mold on it. That’s due to Diaporthe, is what they call it. Those of us that have been agronomists for a long time used to call it Phomopsis.

It’s just the same name for two different stages of the pathogen. But that’s a pathogen that’s there in the beans every year, and it actually helps break down the beans at the end of the season, which is great for us.

Once we get the beans harvested.

Yeah. So the beans are standing in the field, and this pathogen has a great disease triangle. It’s loving its environment and it’s just working on breaking down anything that’s out there.

And unfortunately, the soybeans are still out there.

I don’t know enough about it to know if this is going to cause any concern for long-term storage. Do we have to handle the grain any differently coming out of the field than we normally would to maybe isolate this?

Cercospora is a different beast. Those can cause docking at elevators if there’s too much of that. But we’re going to be exploring that over the next couple of weeks here at Farm Supply and trying to get information out to our growers.

The other phenomenon we’ve seen is actually ears of corn standing on the stalks in the field are starting to sprout at the bottom.

Now, this is because when the ear is on the stalk, we get so much moisture, and the moisture is going in and the husk is holding it at the bottom.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay.

Amy Asmus:
So we’re basically sprouting it with all this moisture around the bottom.

Now, a lot of people I’ve talked to—newer agronomists—say, “I’ve never seen this. I’ve never seen this.”

Well, back in 2007, I used to blog for Iowa Farmer Today, and we did a weekly blog. I have pictures and blog posts from that time in 2007 where this happened.

But I’m not aware that it’s happened in our area since then.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Okay.

Amy Asmus:
So, very rare that we see it.

Right now, it’s early stages. There’s a little bit of sprouting. If you go south of us towards Ames, where they’ve had more rain and a little bit more sun than we have, the sprouting is actually three to four inches long on some of the ears.

So that’s interesting.

In 2007, you know, through the combine, it just knocked sprouts off, got dried down, weather went away. So I don’t think that’s a problem for storage. Might be a problem for grain quality, but not a problem for storing the grain.

So there’s also been some talk of some of the typical corn diseases that are out there, give and take.

So make sure you’re keeping track of your grain and drying it down and storing it in the best way so that we don’t reduce the grain quality that’s out there.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah. And that does bring up a question, because I know before we came on, you had mentioned that because of the weather, the way it’s been, maybe some of the grain going to storage wouldn’t be dried down to the proper moisture level that normally it would.

I mean, is that really a concern, and what might that be doing to some of the grain quality?

Amy Asmus:
So in our area, most of the corn is not dropping as fast as it normally would. We’re seeing anywhere from 23 to actually up to 27% for some of our earlier varieties.

Worried about it drying down, most people that have on-farm storage have their own dryers, and they’re going to dry that down to 14 or 15%, depending on what their protocols are for storing it.

So do we leave it in the field and hope that it dries down naturally, or do we take it out at the levels that we have and dry it down?

You want to talk about diesel costs? Let’s talk about propane to run our dryers.

Yeah. And then, if you don’t have a dryer set up on your farm, or you talked about the USDA numbers, if you’ve still got grain from a previous season in your bins and you have to take some to town pre-dryer, you’re going to pay probably four and a half cents a bushel to dry that down per point to that 15%.

So if it’s at 20, you’re paying for five. If it’s at 27, you’re paying a lot per bushel to bring that down.

And then if it comes in that wet at the elevator and they’re drying it, they’re usually charging you like 1.5% shrink on those bushels as well.

So again, more costs for the farmer this fall that maybe was not budgeted for when you set up your loans and your budgets earlier in the season.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Right. Well, again, as we’ve said often on the program, 2026 is an interesting year.

And I know the old Chinese curse of, “May you live in interesting times.” We’re there.

So yeah, this is stuff, again, we will follow in future videos as we go through the fall harvest season and see how things all shake out.

But I know commodity prices were going up last I checked, so I mean, people were happy about that. So maybe there are some silver linings among all the clouds.

Amy Asmus:
So the great part is we as farmers love what we do, and we love the challenges. If it was the same year after year after year, we’d all get bored.

So maybe we all have interesting harvests, but safe harvests.

Eric Sfiligoj:
So I was going to say, 30 years of talking to ag retailers and farmers, I’ve never heard anyone say that I’m bored because every year is exactly identical to the year before. I don’t think that’s ever happened.

And if it does before I retire, I’ll be shocked.

Amy Asmus:
So, yes, we just want to get this harvest party started.

Hopefully, we saw the last of the rain last night and it starts to clear up, and we can go out and actually quit all of this speculating or spot-checking like we do when we walk the field and actually see what’s out there.

Yeah, that’d be great.

Eric Sfiligoj:
Yeah.

All right. Well, very good. Well, Miss Amy, again, thanks for joining us for this edition of CropLife Retail Week and sharing all the industry knowledge and what’s going on in the marketplace with our viewers.

Viewers, we hope you enjoyed this edition, and we will see you again next week. Take care.