Minnesota’s agricultural sector is facing mounting pressure, with new federal data showing a significant drop in both the number of farms and total farmland across the state.
According to the USDA’s latest annual report, Minnesota had 65,300 farms in 2024. That number fell to 64,000 in 2025. At the same time, farmland in the state declined by 100,000 acres.
State Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said the numbers point to a troubling trend. “That’s still way too many,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, right now, our farmers are struggling.”
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Petersen noted that there were no reported farm losses between 2023 and 2024, suggesting the state likely lost about 1,300 farms over the past two years. Much of the strain comes from global trade tensions tied to tariffs introduced in 2025. Soybeans, Minnesota’s largest agricultural export, were hit particularly hard.
“Our anticipated losses were over $100 an acre,” said Ryan Mackenthun, a fifth-generation farmer and Vice President of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. While farmers can now apply for the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance program after weeks of delays, Mackenthun said the aid will not fully offset their losses.
“For soybeans, it looks like the payments will be about $30 per acre,” he said. “But every little bit’s gonna help in making us whole.” Petersen acknowledged that renewed soybean purchases by China have offered some relief, but warned that the long-term impact remains.
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“We did kind of lose a year that created chaos and put a lot of farmers in peril, and so we’ll have to continue to see what happens,” he said. Financial stress is becoming increasingly visible. The University of Minnesota Extension Office reported 226 new mediation cases between farmers and lenders in January alone, a sharp rise from 88 in December.
For the first four months of the current fiscal year, new cases reached 694, compared to 524 in the same period last year. “We really hope that farmers can get those federal dollars into their accounts to help them navigate some of these tough times right now,” Petersen said.
Tariff uncertainty continues to complicate recovery efforts. “There continues to be uncertainty with the tariffs,” he said. “We had a tariff and then the court ruled, and then the President said we’re going to do 10%, and then he said we’re going to do 15%, now we’re back to doing 10%. If you’re buying from the United States, it’s hard to cut a deal.”
He added, “Just about every crop that you’re putting in, whether it’s corn, soybeans, wheat, sugar beets, you know, you are putting it in – planting it – at a loss. In some cases, a significant loss.” Still, many farmers continue planting in hopes of better days ahead.
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“Farmers are planting on good faith that eventually our markets will come back to profitable levels,” Mackenthun said. But uncertainty about the future weighs heavily.
“As a 5th-generation farmer, I want my kids to be able to continue on our legacy farm. But is that a viable option for them?” he said. “That weighs a lot on me personally and whether that’s even something I want to put them into if they’re handling all these pressures and stresses and things that are out of control.”