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During a recent trip to Washington DC, Nebraska farmers told members of Congress they’re being adversely impacted by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and they need financial assistance.

Many corn and soybean producers say they’re losing money on their products. The administration says it’s using economic levies to level the playing field.

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen said ag producers want greater support for using farm products in biofuel production, including ethanol and aviation fuel.

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"We need to be able to get serious about domestic utilization of soybeans and corn in our gasoline and our diesel fuel," said Hansen, "and we could be helping take a lot of pressure off of losing foreign markets if we had better domestic utilization."

A handful of small, startup companies in Nebraska and neighboring Iowa have started producing jet fuel that contains ethanol. Farmers are also seeking incentives to increase the amount of corn they can use in the alternative fuel.

Hansen said farmers are also pushing for more price supports for corn and soybeans, which, as it stands, are costing farmers more to produce than they actually earn for their products, based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's own data.

"We established the fact that on USDA's data, they say that it costs $4.80 a bushel to produce a bushel of corn. And they predicted that the average market price for corn is going to be $3.90," said Han Senator "When you do the math, that's losing 90 cents on every bushel of corn we produce."

In the case of soybeans, USDA says it costs farmers $11.80 a bushel to produce and predicts farmers can expect $10.10 a bushel on the market.

The federal Farm Bill has been delayed for several years, and lawmakers are now facing a September 30 deadline on a law that has already been extended since 2018.