Input Costs Get Corny

U.S. growers can do a lot of things well. Apparently, buying seed and chemistry cheaply is not one of them.

Sticker shock: A new corn-grower analysis called Productive but Priced Out puts hard numbers behind a complaint producers have been making for years: the checkout lane looks different depending on which side of the equator you farm. The comparison looked at seed and crop protection costs in the U.S. and Brazil, which is a tidy way to ruin a perfectly good morning coffee.

By the numbers: From 2023 to 2025, U.S. corn seed carried a 68% premium over Brazilian prices. Some fungicides were more than double, many herbicide comparisons came in near double, and U.S. farmers paid about 35% more for glyphosate in 2025. That is not a small leak in the budget. That is the sprayer hose coming loose.

The wrinkle: The study adjusted for taxes, currency differences and purchasing power, and it still found higher costs for many U.S. growers. Fertilizer was not included, so this is not just another nitrogen gripe wearing a new hat. The report points toward seed, traits, generics, product mixes and market structure.

Why it matters: Brazil is not background scenery in corn and soybean trade. If U.S. farmers start every season paying more for the tools to grow the same global commodity, competitiveness gets planted on uneven ground before the planter even leaves the shed.