“Not something you’d normally expect to see a fencing operation for.”
That was my thought as well...
Fertilizer is not all that cheap now. Fertilizer goes up with the price of natural gas. Want to see how profitable fertilizer companies are just now that they’re increasing their prices? Look at the charts for stocks TNH and POT.
Five tons, depending on the type of fertilizer, will run you from $280/ton to $360/ton, in bulk. From what I read, this was packaged for retail sale, which means that this would probably fetch a few thousand dollars more. Given how many illegals are working in the landscaping business in SoCal at cut-rates, off the books, I can certainly see how retail fertilizer would be attractive. “Hey, Senor, we got a really good deal on zee fertilizer... make zee grass grow nice and green...”
Too many people think that all fertilizers can be used to make a bomb. If I gave you 10 tons of the fertilizer we use every year (11-52-0), you could soak that stuff with diesel oil until you’re blue in the face and it would never light off. Only ammonium nitrate (34-0-0) in good grade, without too much binder/filler, will work for ANFO. 34-0-0 is rarely seen in retail applications. Most homeowners would burn their lawns or landscaping with fertilizer that concentrated, so most retail fertilizer is blended to relatively low concentrations.