Posted on 04/06/2022 5:39:13 PM PDT by EBH
As many U.S. farmers anxiously await spring planting, supply chain concerns continue to plague planting outlooks. And while weather typically has the final say in what farmers plant, input availability issues could be another factor farmers battle all spring.
USDA’s Prospective Plantings report shows farmers intend to plant 4% fewer acres in 2022, largely due to fertilizer prices. However, it’s chemistry availability that seems to be a growing concern for both ag retail suppliers and farmers. Commodity and input prices have seen a dramatic change since the USDA survey was done at the beginning of March. And if farmers decide to switch acres last minute, finding the necessary inputs may be the biggest hurdle this year.
Farm Journal recently conducted a survey of ag retailers, and it found 87% of retailers say they have had difficulty sourcing inputs this year. And of those who are having trouble with input availability this year, 85% say herbicides are the biggest problem. The next biggest concern is with fungicide as 42% of retailers surveyed say they’ve seen issues with that input. 38% of respondents reported fertilizer supply problems.
The Farm Journal survey also drilled down further into the chemistry supply concerns. Ag retailers say glyphosate is the biggest concern at this point in the year.
Glyphosate production was hammered with several black swan events this year. Ripple effects of COVID-19 in China caused issues in sourcing the active ingredients in glyphosate. Then, Hurricane Ida hammered the Gulf Coast, with the largest glyphosate plant in the U.S. taking a direct hit. The Bayer facility, which supplies the majority of glyphosate in the U.S., was offline for more than six weeks last fall. And then another issue spurred supply concerns this year, as Bayer declared a Force Majeure...
(Excerpt) Read more at agweb.com ...
No, we’ll all get really skinny and die.
Lawn fertilizer is available here: small bag $27; large bag $79. Last year I paid $8.99 for small bags.
(Looks over electric fence at cows in neighbor’s pasture)
Yup. We’re good on fertilizer.
Stay out the ethanol.
.
There is plenty of bull@*&# to be found.
Probably a deep state plot to keep folks from combining it with diesel. Ties it with them steeply raising diesel/gasoline price spread.
Why do they need Chemicals and Fertilizer every year ?
Are we still paying farmers to not grow crops? Maybe that program should be revisited.
If you read the article, the thing that’s in shortest supply is glyphosate weed control agent. (Roundup, to those of you in Rio Linda). This is going to put the kibosh on a lot of the “no till” row crop farmers.
Short answer is that big farmers don't practice crop rotation any more. Corn is the cash crop, and it requires a lot of nitrogen in the form of ammonium nitrate.
Wheat farmers try to get two crops a year from the same soil, same problem.
Used to be that farmers would grow a crop of soybeans to fix nitrogen into the soil, but that means no corn or wheat for a season, which is where the money is. ,
Tractor supply all purpose 40 pound of 10-10-10 17.99
Home Depot hydroponics all purpose 40 pound of 10-10-10 21.97
Buy it now before you cant
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/crops/article/2022/03/09/retail-fertilizer-prices-resume
Other answer is that farmers need weed control to get the high yields the world needs, and that means glyphosate.
Of course, the scarcity of one raises the price of the competing herbicides.
Because the value of the fertilizer exceeds the cost. The farmers get more money from selling larger harvests than they pay for the fertilizer.
The crop rotation was government enforced. Soy beans do add nitrogen to the ground but when you switch to corn you still have to add anhydrous. My SIL family are big corn farmers and for them, it’s more efficient to farm one crop vs. two. More equipment, storage etc.
Soy beans do add nitrogen to the ground but when you switch to corn you still have to add anhydrous.
Don’t see the bright red nodules anymore when you pull up a root.
https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/understanding-soybean-nodulation-and-inoculation.html
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