Sunday, February 6, 2022

"Fertilizer Price Index Jumps Most Since September"

Following up on the post immediately below, "The Clumsy Western Attempts To Oust The Tyrant Of Belarus Benefits Putin And Is Paid For With Your Grocery Money".

From the University of Illinois' Farm Policy News, February 6:

Bloomberg writer Elizabeth Elkin reported on Friday that, “North American fertilizer prices rose the most in almost five months this week as a global competition for supplies means farmers could still have a ways to go before seeing relief from high nutrient costs.

The Green Markets North America Fertilizer Price Index jumped 11%, the most since the week ended Sept. 10. India, the world’s largest importer of the popular nitrogen fertilizer urea, is looking to buy product later than usual. That will increase competition for nitrogen in the first quarter of 2022, when the U.S. and Europe are looking to buy, said Alexis Maxwell, an analyst for Bloomberg’s Green Markets.”

“Fertilizer Prices Jump in North America on Race for Supplies,” by Elizabeth Elkin. Bloomberg News (February 4, 2022).

Elkin pointed out that, “Though prices in the U.S. have dipped off records, they remain high. That’s adding to costs for farmers and prompting some to curb fertilizer usage, threatening to curb crop yields and further raise global food prices that are near a record high.”

With respect to fertilizer use, Amie Simpson reported last week at Brownfield that, “Some farmers are planning to adjust nitrogen application plans because of rising input prices, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

Jim Mintert is the director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.

‘Roughly four out of 10 corn producers in the survey said that they were going to reduce their nitrogen application rate in 2022 compared to what they used in 2021,’ he says.....

....MUCH MORE

I'm no farmer but I'm pretty sure reducing the rate of fertilizer application means reducing the yield, in bushels, per acre.