Tight crop margins are nothing new for members of the Lynnville Ag Marketing Club, a collection of farmers who’ve been getting together through every bull and bear market for the past 15 years.

"We’re going to be looking at less income this year," said Max VandeLune, a Jasper County Farm Bureau member who has been coming to the club’s meetings since its inception. "But we’ve had some good years the last few years."

The Lynnville club started meeting in 2000 to help farmers navigate through an era of low prices and help them understand the intricacies of loan deficiency payments (LDPs), marketing loans, crop insurance and other market factors, said Steve Johnson, an Iowa State University Extension farm management specialist.

Last week, close to 70 club members gathered in the basement of First State Bank in Lynnville to hear weather and price outlooks for this year’s crops as well as updates on the new safety net programs...