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The conflict brewing overseas between Ukraine and Russia could be fertile ground to drive inflation higher for U.S. farmers. That's why producers such as Scott Spohn are paying close attention to the crisis. "We know that the Ukraine thing has been driving up fuel prices," Spohn said.Spohn farms 6,000 acres near Friend, Nebraska, about 90 minutes outside Omaha. "Diesel fuel goes up, trucking goes up. All our inputs are going up," Spohn said. He said fertilizer prices were already at record highs before the conflict."Never seen these types of increases in fertilizer," Spohn said. "You're talking three 400% increases in a 14-month period."Spohn worries they'll go even higher. Jay Rempe, Nebraska Farm Bureau's senior economist, said Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer.So, if Russia invades Ukraine, and then the U.S. and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries retaliate with trade sanctions, that could cause shortages and drive up prices.Spohn said currently grain prices are good. "The concern is that when commodity prices go back down, inputs don't necessarily have to follow," Spohn said.He said he was able to lock in on some input costs such as fertilizer, fuel and seed while selling some of his corn and soybeans in advance."You can only hedge out there so far, so I can hedge this year's crop and next year's crop but if input costs continue to escalate as fast as they've been escalating, it's going to be trouble," Spohn said.Spohn is concerned consumers will also end up paying more."Beef costs, vegetable costs all their food costs are going to be up in the grocery store and they are going to correlate this to all these farmers making all this money when in reality our inputs have gone up so much," Spohn said.Dan Nerud, the president of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association said it's too early to know the impact of higher production costs on planting.He said there may be slightly less corn planted in spring.Watch the video above for the full story.