Posted on 03/26/2022 5:09:38 AM PDT by hardspunned
Fertilizer and lime runs about 15-18 percent of my expenses and it is the single biggest expense I have. However a bunch of us dumber than dirt farmers got together last year and figured out this is going to happen so we bought a bunch of fertilizer cheap. However next year will be a different story.
If that fertilizer was not available and you put in your crop without it, what effect would that have on your yield?
:-)
We stocked up two years ago.
I found a tin of flour I’d put up, a decade ago, recently, that is still as fresh (and, bug free!) as it was the day I put it up.
Sam’s has it, at that weight/amount, right now, too. FYI. I just checked.
The farm is in NW Oklahoma, and the growing season only allows for one crop a year. Without fertilizer, I would have to guess the yield would be about 50 percent. It's hard to say, because on the fringe spots that don't get fertilized, the wheat isn't even close to maturity when the rest of the field gets cut. And, the seed pods are very small. You might think that you could give the wheat more time to mature, but you can't. If you don't get it cut in July, you run a huge risk of losing the crop due to lack of rainfall when it gets hot and dry in August.
50%! That’s much worse than I would have imagined. I have a feeling before this year is over, we’ll be longing for the good old days of 2020. Guys like you, who thought ahead and stockpiled fertilizer, will probably get price controlled back to break even or worse. Good luck with your crop. Thanks for the info.
Before that happens, I'll just lease the property out to hunters rather than plant it in wheat. It only makes about 75 to 80 dollars/acre profit as is. And, it is one of the highest yielding fields per acre in the county.
As incredible as it sounds, I don’t think DC understands or cares that farmers would react like that. Even staring down the barrel of possible widespread starvation, they just don’t give a damn.
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