A New Holland Agriculture 100 series box spreader distributes manure for fertilizer. (CNH Industrial/Handout via REUTERS) Posted on 04/20/2022 11:43:57 AM PDT by SJackson
A New Holland Agriculture 100 series box spreader distributes manure for fertilizer. (CNH Industrial/Handout via REUTERS)
The war in Ukraine is causing a rise in oil and wheat prices. Other items are hard to come by due to international restrictions on doing business with Russia. For example, many countries are seeing less fish than usual, because Russia usually catches and sells a lot of fish.
However, one item you may not think of that often is harder to find than normal. That is the crop-growing aid known as fertilizer.
Fertilizer is added to soil and provides plants such as wheat and corn with nutrients so they can grow. But some of the chemicals used to make fertilizer, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, require a lot of energy. As energy sources like gas, oil and coal get more expensive, so does fertilizer.
Why a fertilizer shortage?
The Dutch bank Rabobank said 40 percent of the world’s supply of potash, or potassium chloride, comes from Russia and Belarus. Potash is an important fertilizer ingredient, and it is not as available as usual.
A company that follows fertilizer in London, CRU Group, said nitrogen-based fertilizer is four times more expensive than it was in 2020. Fertilizer made from phosphate and potash has gotten three times more expensive.
As a result, farmers are more interested than before in using animal waste, sometimes called manure, as fertilizer. The animal waste has some of those nutrients and can be used by farmers to make their soil healthier.
The waste from animals like cows can be used as fertilizer. Picture taken March 16, 2022 in Piana di Monte Verna, Italy. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
Farmers that raise livestock such as cows and pigs normally have to pay to get manure removed from their land. However, due to the high cost of fertilizer, people are paying the farmers to pick it up.
“Manure is absolutely a hot commodity,” said Allen Kampschnieder, a farming consultant. There are long lists of farmers waiting for manure deliveries.
Farm equipment sales rise
The need for manure is also helping people who make farm equipment that helps dry and spread manure. The spreaders are called “honeywagons.”
Phinite is a company based in North Carolina that makes manure dryers. The dryers take the water out of the waste and make it easier to spread. Phinite said it has gotten calls for its equipment from farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
One company in Canada, Husky Farm Equipment, makes honeywagons. Some of them can cost $70,000. The company’s president, Walter Grose, says they are sold out for six months.
Other companies that make similar products said they are selling more than normal.
Abe Sandquist says he has worked for much of his career to sell manure to farmers. Now, he doesn’t have enough. “I wish we had more to sell,” he said, “but there’s not enough to meet the demand.”
In the U.S., high fertilizer costs will likely cause farmers to plant fewer crops. The government notes the amount of wheat stored in the U.S. is at its lowest in 14 years.
Some concerns
The manure will be able to replace some of the fertilizer, but it is not risk-free. First, there is not enough supply. Second, it is costly to transport. And third, there are environmental concerns about manure. Experts believe the manure can make water unhealthy.
As a result, it is hard for farmers that raise pigs and cows to easily get into the manure business. 
A custom hauler spreads dairy manure on hay ground in Wallenstein, Ontario, U.S., in the spring of 2018. (Husky Farm Equipment Ltd./Handout via REUTERS)
Jim Monroe is a spokesperson for a large company that raises pigs. He said more farmers are thinking about using manure to help grow crops.
Dale Cramer is unsure about what he will do. He grows corn, soybeans and wheat in the Midwestern U.S. state of Nebraska. He has been trying to get manure for his 2,400 hectares of land. So far, he has not found any.
Kampschnieder said manure prices are almost 100 percent higher than usual.
Pat Reisinger is a farmer in Iowa. He said he is glad he raises animals, because he can use their manure for his corn and soybeans. He is also able to sell a little to his neighbors.
Farm economy changes
Reisinger, however, is unique. In recent years, farms like his are less common.
A liquid manure tank filled with dairy manure is seen in Wallenstein, Ontario. (Husky Farm Equipment Ltd./Handout via REUTERS)
Instead, certain regions in the U.S. are known for producing items like eggs, milk and meat. That is where the most manure can be found. However, some of those regions are far away from the areas that need the animal waste. As a result, some parts of the U.S. have too much manure and others do not have enough.
Brett Reinford of Pennsylvania raises cows that produce milk. Last year, he told other farmers they could take his manure. No one wanted it. Now he has something valuable.
“I wish we had more,” he said.
I’m Dan Friedell
We piled up our manure all year and during the winter spread it. The rats made a condo out of it and as the scoop of poop was lifted they would scurry off the load. Our dog had a ball
chasing down and killing them
My cats will sell their poopie! Proudly so!
Nelson
I also have two litter boxes! I wonder if they will pick it up or if I have to deliver it!
Nelson
So a steady supply of an an essential commodity, from a local known source, to help in providng nutritous food to the people, is available to US businesses without the need of sending our kids to war?
Seems like a very good idea.
Wonder who thought of putting poop on plants to make em grow?
Yes, sometimes HE works in not-so-mysterious ways.
The increased demand will allow him to increase his price.
Most Americans are not aware that the Biden cabal’s lunatic war on fossil fuels is having a huge detrimental effect on agricultural production. Natural gas is the core ingredient of fertilizer and diesel fuel is critically important for farmers. Thanks to the lunatic greens, these products are scarce and expensive. American farmers are clever and innovative to make some compensations. Americans won’t starve but prices will increase dramatically. The green lunatics will of course blame the farmers and will deny all accountability.
The situation will be much worse in the rest of the world. If bad weather should occur in China and India ( both are already predicting smaller harvests), there will be regional famines, starvation and quickly erupting hunger wars.
I’d take that over some of the stuff they truck from the seafood processors in the area. They haul it in trucks on a nearby road, occasionally, and if you get behind it...even 15 minutes behind it....it’ll gag you.
You can compost meat/dead animals if you keep the compost hot enough. I have possuum, dead rodents, etc. in mine. Find a bone now and then.
Dale I have about a tractor scoop in my chicken house. I’ll even supply a shovel.
Lots of article about using urine on the net. We’re going to try it this yr on the grass and maybe the sweet corn
As a boy, my aunts and uncles would raise 5k chickens at a time / 3x’s a year for a local processor as a side to the crops. Three times a year we boy cousins would shovel the barns down 6 inches to sell the guano to area farmers. Made $250-300 a barn [each about 100 yards long, 20 yards wide + fenced yard]. Pretty good cash for a 12 year old in the 80’s - and made the barns ready for the next flock making the parents happy.
Today we use our backyard chickens as fertilizer producers for the victory garden. Been doing it for years [there’s a process, tossing it direct onto the plants will kill them].
So not unusual - in fact VERY normal for us farmers and farmer kin to do this.
This was in a Los Angeles outlier city in the Antelope Valley.
I hear you. I put mine in a pool chemical bucket in a trash bag. Maybe we should package it up and send it C/O Brandon to the White House every week. We can re-cycle those EveryPlate / HelloFresh boxes. Just re-freeze those freezer packs.
Great idea! "Here, Brandon. We are gladly helping with the fertilizer shortage you caused. Just doing our part."
Used to be how we had our lawn fertilized this way — we’d pay for a tuck load of manure to be delivered and we’d spread it. Stunk up the neighborhood for a week but it did a pretty good job.
Just cleaned the barn. Got a whole wheelbarrow full. Bidding starts at $100! ;)
“As a result, it is hard for farmers that raise pigs and cows to easily get into the manure business.”
Anyone that farms on a small scale (100 head or so) already uses all animal waste to fertilize the crops they grow to feed said animals for the next year.
Circle of Life and all that.
Anyone that is running a massive farming operation already IS selling their waste to a third party.
Heck, ever heard of MetroGrow? That’s people poop from our major metro areas, not to be confused with ‘Soylent Green’ which will soon be a by-product of major metro areas. ;)
I think the poop market is pretty much saturated, as it were. *SMIRK*
“Such a special smell.”
Yep. Hot and humid August day with a southerly breeze wafting your way.
Grandpa: “That’s the smell of MONEY, Kids!”
Nothing like it! *BLECH*
Whenever I see veggies or fish products that say “Farm raised in India, Indonesia or China, I think “I wonder what they use for fertilizer or fish food in those countries?” and then replace the package.
Why dont they just call it cow poopy or something ???
John Deere stands behind everything they sell, except their manure spreaders.
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