Dear Future President,

Hi. My name is Keaton Dudden, I am a local farm kid in Grundy County, Iowa one of the best places to farm in the United States because of its rich soil. We as farmers know what it is like to struggle to have to make an income with prices like today's. My dad has been farming his whole life and through the ups and downs god has done us some good. It all started back when my grandparents first bought their land and it was priced at $400 an acre. Just think how far we have come today since we harvest about 3600 acres and own about 1000 total.

I wake up in the morning and when I look outside both of my parents are always gone. I get home from my school sports practices and go out and work. Typically I won’t get in the house until around 8:30-9 and my dad won’t get in until around 10. The problem here isn’t that my family is always working because don’t get me wrong it’s my favorite thing to do is to work with my dad on the farm. The problem is that we have to work this long to even pull in a little bit of profit because of the crop prices.

Farmers all around the world today are worried about the prices. Depending if they have other livestock to go along with farming some will plant more corn than beans and the others more beans than corn. Every year it's different and it’s hard because if you try to plant more soybeans than corn to try and make a profit then the price drops and you have to loan money to try and come back from it. The average farmer has about $500,000 in debt and we need good prices to be able to try and come back to break even at the end of the year.

Farming is very important in the USA and all other countries. Different places are used for growing many different crops. These crops are used for multiple different products either to make feed or food for us to eat. The problem with today is that this year's yields are through the roof; but the prices are at a record LOW. Crop farmers are barely breaking even and sometimes losing money because we have bills to pay and they aren't cheap.

In the end of all of the troubles Farming is my life. Without farming I don’t know where I would be in life right now. Along with that the prices could take this away from lots of people. I just wanted you to realise what and how the prices of today affect everyone.

Sincerely,

Keaton Dudden