Grassley Leads Hearing on Farm Input Costs; Latham Cites Rising Seed Royalties

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa is continuing his effort to bring more transparency to rising farm input costs through his bipartisan Fertilizer Research Act. Grassley, a lifelong farmer from Butler County and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led a hearing yesterday (Tue) examining how market consolidation among major agricultural companies has affected the price of fertilizer and seed — two of the largest expenses for family farmers.

The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Joni Ernst of Iowa, would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study pricing trends, market concentration, and the factors driving fertilizer costs. It would also restore annual fertilizer industry reporting that ended in 2014. During the hearing, Grassley asked Iowa seed producer John Latham of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds in Alexander how recent mergers have affected his business and whether farmers still have access to a wide range of seed varieties. Latham told the committee the changes have had a major impact on both prices and innovation:

“Five years ago, 42 percent of a bag of seed went to seed royalties. Now 70 percent of a bag of seed goes to seed royalties. And unfortunately, there’s been no new innovation. These are the existing products that we had five years ago… They did it because commodity prices were good at the time, and they said, ‘farmers can afford it now.’ So the prices went up significantly, and now, unfortunately, commodity prices are down, and those prices haven’t gone down at all.”

The hearing also featured testimony from Iowa farmer Noah Coppess and representatives of national farm and industry groups. Links to listen to more comments from the hearing are available below:

OPENING STATEMENT VIDEO

FIRST ROUND OF QUESTIONS VIDEO

SECOND ROUND OF QUESTIONS VIDEO

John Latham, Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, answering questions before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Judiciary Committee. (2025, October 28). Grassley questions witnesses at Senate Judiciary on agriculture [Video]. YouTube. Screenshot taken at 3:44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azN0DeV1dyQ