2026-05-20T10:13:23.371Z / reuters.com
内容提要
- 受霍尔木兹海峡对峙事件影响，美国农民面临高企的燃油和化肥价格
- 部分农民为削减成本削减化肥用量，作物产量面临风险
- 干旱已蔓延至美国本土约60%的区域
得克萨斯州图利亚，5月20日（路透社）——斯科特·伊尔贝克蹲在西得克萨斯一片干旱地区的矮小麦田中，把手伸进一条宽得能容下整只手的裂缝里。
去年秋天，伊尔贝克播种的作物几乎颗粒无收，因为一滴雨都没下。如今他只希望保险定损员能将这块地认定为绝收，这样他就不用花钱买昂贵的燃油，在下个月进行收割。
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伊朗局势推高的燃油和商业化肥成本，让美国得克萨斯州、堪萨斯州、俄克拉荷马州、南达科他州和内布拉斯加州等平原州的农民处境更加艰难。
即便在这场局势升级之前，农民们就已经在与反复来袭的干旱、高昂的生产成本以及唐纳德·特朗普总统贸易政策的后遗症作斗争——这些政策重创了出口市场，压低了农作物价格。
肯塔基州农业局在本月提交给美国参议院农业委员会听证会的预先证词中指出，自2月底霍尔木兹海峡关闭以来，农用柴油价格上涨了72%。该农民组织表示，海湾地区生产的主要化肥之一尿素价格上涨了55%，另一种氮肥价格上涨了33%。
然而，由于干旱，农民们面临着收成减少的前景，却还要为各种开支买单。
伊尔贝克本月将要播种的高粱没有提前采购化肥，他表示，由于价格飙升加上持续已久的干旱降低了潜在产量，他可能根本不会使用任何化肥。
“燃油、干旱、化肥，”伊尔贝克一边数着自己面临的挑战一边说，“我已经三振出局了。我是不是已经没戏了？”
旱灾肆虐小麦产区
得克萨斯州是美国第三大小麦种植州、第二大高粱种植州，同时也是第一大棉花种植州。
伊尔贝克在图利亚附近的农场里，狂风席卷着干燥枯黄的田野，田间点缀着上次收获后留下的脏兮兮的棉絮和脆硬的高粱秆。
根据美国农业部的数据，美国用于制作面包的硬红冬小麦产量预计将达到1957年以来的最低水平。
“我就等着它彻底枯死了。”伊尔贝克说。
根据美国最新的《干旱监测报告》，超过60%的美国本土地区（人口约1.53亿）正遭受干旱，这一比例高于2026年初的43%和一年前的33%。
俄克拉荷马州立大学农艺学家阿曼达·德·奥利维拉·席尔瓦4月底表示，在俄克拉荷马州受灾最严重的地区，降雨可能已经来不及挽救小麦了。
“降雨可以保住剩下的作物，但无法逆转已经造成的损害。”
南达科他州立大学推广农艺学家克拉伦斯·温特表示，由于价格高企且生长条件恶劣，南达科他州的农民正在重新考虑去年秋季播种的小麦的施肥计划。
当被问及对化肥价格的看法时，美国农业部在给路透社的一份声明中表示，整个特朗普政府都致力于确保国内生产更多负担得起的化肥。
局势推高生产成本
对于在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨县种植小麦、高粱和大豆的汤米·索尔兹伯里来说，投入品价格上涨抵消了特朗普政府120亿美元援助计划给个体经营者带来的好处——该计划旨在抵消关税带来的负面影响。
“我们支付的是2026年的投入品价格，拿到的却是70年代和80年代的农作物和谷物价格。”他说。
美国农业部部长布鲁克·罗林斯承认农民们正面临困境。
“在我们的农业经济陷入困境之际，我们正目睹价格大幅上涨。”她在周二的新闻发布会上说道。
她在上个月的X平台帖子中表示，约80%的美国农民在去年秋天，也就是这场局势升级之前，就已经锁定了化肥供应。
然而，美国主要农业游说团体美国农业局联合会的一项调查发现，大多数农民无力承担本生长季所需的全部化肥。
该农业局表示，提前采购的比例因地区而异。尽管中西部的大多数农民已经预订了2026年的化肥，但东北部和南部的农民并非如此。
美国农业局称，中西部地区更普遍采取提前采购的做法，因为许多农民在玉米和大豆之间轮作，会提前很久做出购买决策。而在南部地区，许多农民没有化肥储存设施。
当被置评请求时，美国农业部表示正在持续评估化肥使用量相关数据。
在得克萨斯州西部城市奥尔顿经营农场的科迪·卡森表示，他没有提前采购化肥，可能根本不会为他的2400英亩棉花购买任何化肥。
他说，干旱导致他的冬小麦产量从预期的每英亩80蒲式耳降至估计的18至20蒲式耳。
“连能不能收回种植成本都不知道，我怎么能谨慎财务，高价预订化肥呢？”卡森说。
依靠信仰支撑
在得克萨斯州彼得斯堡种植棉花、玉米和高粱的汤姆·格雷戈里也没有提前采购化肥。他说，到4月份，他面临的化肥成本已从2月份的每吨402美元涨到了每吨558美元。
格雷戈里表示，无论如何他都在努力推进春季播种，因为耕种是他的生计，也是家族传统。他说他打算尽可能少地施用化肥。
格雷戈里表示，近年来他曾试图通过提高作物产量来抵消不断上涨的投入成本，但这一策略最终落空——先是因为干旱，现在又因为化肥价格上涨。
格雷戈里说，他正依靠自己的信仰、家人和锻炼来挺过难关。
“希望上帝能眷顾我们。”他说。
汤姆·波兰塞克 得克萨斯州图利亚 朱莉·英沃森 芝加哥报道
艾米丽·施马尔、苏珊娜·戈登伯格 编辑
‘Am I out?’ Drought and rising costs from Iran war deepen pain for US farmers
2026-05-20T10:13:23.371Z / reuters.com
Summary
- U.S. farmers face high fuel and fertilizer prices because of Strait of Hormuz standoff
- Some farmers skimp on fertilizer to cut costs, risking crop yields
- Drought expands to about 60% of the U.S. mainland
TULIA, Texas, May 20 (Reuters) – Scott Irlbeck crouched in a field of stunted wheat plants in a parched stretch of West Texas and slipped his hand into a crack wide enough to swallow it.
Last autumn, Irlbeck planted a crop that barely grew because rain never came. He now hopes his insurance adjuster will declare it a total loss so he will not need to spend money on pricey fuel to harvest it next month.
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Soaring costs of fuel and commercial fertilizer, opens new tab in the wake of the Iran war are making hard times worse for farmers across the U.S. Plains states of Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Even before the war, farmers were struggling with a resurgent drought, high input costs, and the fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade policies, which hobbled export markets and drove down prices for their crops.
Since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in late February, the cost of farm diesel has climbed 72%, the Kentucky Farm Bureau wrote in prepared testimony to a U.S. Senate agriculture committee hearing this month. Prices for urea, one of the major fertilizers produced in the Gulf region, were up 55%, while prices for another nitrogen-based fertilizer rose 33%, the farmers’ group said.
And yet, because of the drought, farmers are looking at the prospect of smaller harvests to pay for it all.
Irlbeck, who did not buy fertilizer supplies in advance for a sorghum crop he will plant this month, said he will probably not use any at all because of soaring prices and the pernicious drought reducing potential yields.
“There’s fuel, there’s drought, there’s fertilizer,” Irlbeck said, ticking off his challenges. “I’ve got three strikes. Am I out?”
DROUGHT RAVAGES WHEAT
Texas is the third-largest wheat-growing state in the country, second for sorghum and first for cotton.
Where Irlbeck farms near Tulia, wind gusted across dry, brown fields dotted with dirty clumps of cotton and brittle sorghum stalks left over from previous harvests.
U.S. farmers are expected to produce the smallest crop of hard red winter wheat, which is used to make bread, since 1957, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“I’m just waiting for it to die,” Irlbeck said.
More than 60% of the continental United States, an area with a population of about 153 million people, is experiencing drought, up from 43% at the start of 2026 and 33% a year ago, according to the most recent government U.S. Drought Monitor report.
In Oklahoma, it may be too late for rain to help wheat in the hardest-hit areas, Amanda De Oliveira Silva, an Oklahoma State University agronomist, said in late April.
“Rain can help preserve what’s left, but it won’t reverse the damage already done.”
In South Dakota, farmers were rethinking plans to apply fertilizer to wheat they planted last fall due to high prices and bad growing conditions, said Clarence Winter, South Dakota State University extension agronomist.
When asked for comment on fertilizer costs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement to Reuters that the entire Trump administration was focused on ensuring greater domestic production of affordable fertilizer.
WAR RAISES COSTS
For farmers like Tommy Salisbury, who grows wheat, sorghum and soybeans in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, higher prices for inputs wiped out the benefits that flowed to individual operators under the Trump administration’s $12 billion aid package meant to offset the fallout from tariffs.
“We’re paying input prices of 2026 but we’re getting crop prices and grain prices of the 70s and 80s,” he said.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged farmers were facing hardship.
“We are seeing significant price increases at a time when our farm economy is struggling,” she told a news conference on Tuesday.
In a post on X last month, she said that about 80% of U.S. farmers had locked in supplies last fall, well before the start of the war.
However, a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the leading U.S. farm lobby, found that most farmers could not afford all the fertilizer they need for this growing season.
Rates of advance purchases varied widely by region, the Farm Bureau said. While most farmers in the Midwest prebooked fertilizer for 2026, that was not the case in the Northeast or the South.
Advance buying is more common in the Midwest because many farmers rotate plantings between corn and soybeans, and make purchase decisions well ahead of planting, the Farm Bureau said. In the South, many farmers do not have storage facilities for fertilizer, the group said.
Asked for comment, USDA said it was continuing to evaluate the data on fertilizer usage.
Kody Carson, who farms in the West Texas city of Olton, said he did not buy fertilizer in advance and might not buy any at all for his 2,400 acres of cotton.
The drought decimated yields of his winter wheat to an estimated 18 to 20 bushels per acre from his expectation of 80 bushels per acre, he said.
“How can I go out and be financially prudent and book this high-dollar fertilizer when I don’t even know if I’m going to make a crop?” Carson said.
LEANING ON RELIGION
Tom Gregory, who grows cotton, corn and sorghum in Petersburg, Texas, also did not buy fertilizer in advance. By April, he said he was facing costs of $558 per ton, up from $402 per ton in February.
Gregory was trying to proceed with spring plantings anyway, he said, because farming is his livelihood and a family tradition. He said he intends to apply fertilizer as sparingly as possible.
In recent years, Gregory said he sought to counter increasing input costs by producing bigger crop yields. His hopes eventually faded for that strategy, he said, first because of the drought and now because of higher fertilizer prices.
Gregory said he was leaning on his faith, family and exercise to make it through.
“I hope the good Lord takes care of us,” he said.
Reporting by Tom Polansek in Tulia, Texas, and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago. Editing by Emily Schmall and Suzanne Goldenberg